Our work

Our Core Work

Our core work is focused on research partnerships with Indigenous communities seeking to revitalize their laws. These are typically long-term (two-to-three year) collaborations aimed at producing law reports and other legal materials that support community laws and governance, as well as public education.

Our work is community-led. Our major research projects are initiated through invitation by Indigenous communities and the legal questions we work on come directly from the needs of our community partners. Some of the subject areas that communities have asked us to work on include:

  • Social (harms/injuries, gender, equality, human rights, children and families, housing, and violence/vulnerability);
  • Environmental (land, water, and  non-human life forms and relations);
  • Political (governance, institution-building, inter-community/inter-societal relations, citizenship, dispute resolution, legitimacy and accountability); and
  • Economic (Indigenous law and economies).

Our approach

Collaborative research

Our core work is community-led partnerships with Indigenous communities seeking to revitalize their laws. These are long-term (two to three year) collaborations aimed at producing law reports and other legal materials that support community laws and governance, as well as widespread education. We also take on smaller contracts to address specific Indigenous legal issues, and we provide support for Indigenous communities working on their own revitalization efforts.

Education & curriculum

We create clear-language toolkits, videos, and other materials to help a diversity of people learn about Indigenous laws. We draw from our major research projects to design curricula for teaching about Indigenous law in post-secondary settings, and we offer intensive courses on Indigenous legal methodologies through the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law. We also provide research placements for law students.

Workshops & presentations

We offer a range of workshops and presentations for Indigenous communities, professionals, academics, and the broader public. We deliver public presentations that provide introductions to Indigenous law and specific Indigenous legal issues. We host community workshops designed to teach participants about our collaborative approaches to researching Indigenous laws.

location

University of Victoria, Fraser Blg

Call Us

250-721-8914

Raven images are the property of the artist Val Napoleon. If you would like to use one of the images, please contact Val Napoleon at napoleon@uvic.ca or Brooke Edmonds at ilru@uvic.ca.