Creating Indigenous Property: Power, Rights, and Relationships

by Val Napoleon, Sari Graben (Editor)

While colonial imposition of the Canadian legal order has undermined Indigenous law, creating gaps and sometimes distortions, Indigenous peoples have taken up the challenge of rebuilding their laws, governance, and economies. Indigenous conceptions of land and property are central to this project. Creating Indigenous Property identifies how contemporary Indigenous conceptions of property are rooted in and informed by their societally specific norms, meanings, and ethics. Through detailed analysis, the authors illustrate that unexamined and unresolved contradictions between the historic and the present have created powerful competing versions of Indigenous law, legal authorities, and practices that reverberate through Indigenous communities. They have identified the contradictions and conflicts within Indigenous communities about relationships to land and non-human life forms, about responsibilities to one another, about environmental decisions, and about wealth distribution. Creating Indigenous Property contributes to identifying the way that Indigenous discourses, processes, and institutions can empower the use of Indigenous law. The book explores different questions generated by these dynamics, Where is the public/private divide in Indigenous and Canadian law, and why should it matter? How do land and property shape local economies? Whose voices are heard in debates over property and why are certain voices missing? How does gender matter to the conceptualization of property and the Indigenous legal imagination? What is the role and promise of Indigenous law in negotiating new relationships between Indigenous peoples and Canada? In grappling with these questions, readers will join the authors in exploring the conditions under which Canadian and Indigenous legal orders can productively co-exist.

384 pages, Hardcover

Published October 21, 2020

Reviews

[Nuha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to University of Toronto Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available September 16th 2020

This was a tough book to read through, though it means Professor Cameron definitely did her work. Rooting her work in Indigenous female thought, Professor Cameron teases out the complications and philosophies guiding indigenous people's relationship to land. She contrasts Indigenous land treaties to modern day Canadian law, and the conflict that arises when the two don't see eye to eye. What made it difficult for me, as a layperson with little knowledge of indigenous philosophy or property law, is the dense language and construction of the book. I often found myself rereading the same sentence to figure out the meaning and rereading paragraphs to figure out the context. Perhaps, I am not the ideal audience for this work at the time, but I did enjoy getting an understanding of a new area of knowledge!

[Nuha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to University of Toronto Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available September 16th 2020

This was a tough book to read through, though it means Professor Cameron definitely did her work. Rooting her work in Indigenous female thought, Professor Cameron teases out the complications and philosophies guiding indigenous people's relationship to land. She contrasts Indigenous land treaties to modern day Canadian law, and the conflict that arises when the two don't see eye to eye. What made it difficult for me, as a layperson with little knowledge of indigenous philosophy or property law, is the dense language and construction of the book. I often found myself rereading the same sentence to figure out the meaning and rereading paragraphs to figure out the context. Perhaps, I am not the ideal audience for this work at the time, but I did enjoy getting an understanding of a new area of knowledge!

[Wulf Roby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book. The publication date is September 16, 2020.

Publisher description:
Creating Indigenous Property identifies how contemporary Indigenous conceptions of property are rooted in and informed by their societally specific norms, meanings, and ethics. Through detailed analysis, the authors illustrate that unexamined and unresolved contradictions between the historic and the present have created powerful competing versions of Indigenous law, legal authorities, and practices that reverberate through Indigenous communities. 

My take:
This in depth look at the relationships between western societal norms, indigenous culture and the concept of property brings fresh perspective to issues too often ignored. Breaking down these issues for discussion and putting the problems in plain sight may well be a tipping point for enacting change.


#CreatingIndigenousProperty #NetGalley

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense academic exploration. Fascinating possibilities generally positive.