Traditional Knowledge and Law

"We are narrators narratives voices interlocutors of our own knowings we can determine for ourselves what our educational needs are before the coming of churches residential schools prisons before we knew how we knew we knew

"In Comparing Mythologies [Highway] addresses a theme that is central to much of his work: the ways that Canadian culture today is shaped by the mixture of Aboriginal and Western Mythologies. Like many Native writers, Mr. Highway is fascinated by the resilience and vitality of North American Aboriginal cultures, many of which are grounded in a matriarchal tradition. What interests him is not merely the differences between these cultures, but the ways that inherited beliefs enable Native communities to cope with the cultural and social challenges facing them today.

"British Columbia Haida artist Bill Reid, jeweller and wood carver, works on a totem pole in the Haida tradition. The film shows the gradual transformation of a bare cedar trunk into a richly carved pole, a gift from the artist to the people of Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands. Particularly moving is the raising of the pole by the villagers, as Bill Reid stands by." -- Back cover

"The importance of storytelling to Cree culture, and how such stories are vital to understanding the history of the Cree and their rejuvenated future, are central to the themes examined in this visionary book. Neal McLeod examines the history of the nêhiyawak (the Cree people) of western Canada from the massive upheavals of the 1870's and the reserve period to the vibrant cultural and political rebirth of contemporary times.

"During the winter since times predating agriculture, the Cree of Mistassini have gone to the bush of the James and Ungava Bay area to hunt. Three hunting families agreed to meet an NFB crew, who filmed the building of the winter camp, the hunting, the relationship to the land, and the rhythms of Cree family life. This sensitive film expresses Cree beliefs and the ecological principles that are the foundation of their lives." -- Back cover

"Relying extensively on the court transcripts from Delgam’Uukw v. British Columbia, her own research, and material provided by the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs’ office, Dawn Mills paints a compelling picture of the Gitxsan relationship to the land and their community, and their court battle all the way to Canada’s Supreme Court to prove their Aboriginal right to land and self-government.

"Oral traditions are a distinct way of knowing and the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and transferred from generation to generation. The conference from which these essays were selected created an opportunity for people to come together and exchange information and experiences over three days.

"WEH Stanner was a public intellectual whose work reached beyond the walls of the academy, and he remains a highly significant figure in Aboriginal affairs and Australian anthropology. Educated by Radcliffe-Brown in Sydney and Malinowski in London, he undertook anthropological work in Australia, Africa and the Pacific. Stanner contributed much to public understandings of the Dreaming and the significance of Aboriginal religion. His 1968 broadcast lectures, After the Dreaming, continue to be among the most widely quoted works in the field of Aboriginal studies.

"At the dawn of the third millennium, dramatic challenges face human civilization everywhere. Relations between human beings and their environment are in peril, with mounting threats to both biological diversity of life on earth and cultural diversity of human communities. The peoples of the Circumpolar Arctic are at the forefront of these challenges and lead the way in seeking meaningful responses. In Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, author Karim-Aly Kassam positions the Arctic and sub-Arctic as a homeland rather than simply a frontier for resource exploitation.

"At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states.