Frequently Asked Questions
Next Steps: Rebuilding Indigenous Law is an Indigenous-led initiative to renew and rebuild Indigenous legal orders across Canada, addressing all areas of law. Each project will be co-led and co-designed with Indigenous community-based research teams.
Next Steps builds strong, community-driven collaborations, supporting Indigenous peoples to revitalize and apply their own legal traditions to contemporary issues. It builds upon the University of Victoria’s renowned Indigenous legal research and education programs and on methodologies developed by Dr. Val Napoleon and Dr. Hadley Friedland.
Why “Next Steps”?
Next Steps is a global first: rebuilding entire Indigenous legal orders. Prior to this, Indigenous law has been researched and rearticulated one sector at a time, such as lands and resources or child and family laws.
In this era of reconciliation, reclamation, and revitalization, Next Steps is about creating societal transformation in the way we think about law. Indigenous law has been actively undermined since the inception of Canada, and it is time to weave it into the fabric of our legal landscape. Just as Canadian society is governed through common and civil law, Indigenous societies are rebuilding our own legal systems to anchor our ways of knowing into our governance and self-determination.
What is the Difference Between Next Steps and the Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU)?
Next Steps builds on the foundational work of ILRU. The Next Steps team and the ILRU team are separate and distinct research teams both associated with the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law and operating under the leadership of Dr. Val Napoleon and Dr. Rebecca Johnson.
ILRU is a research unit that works in collaboration with Indigenous communities to develop practical legal and educational tools to make Indigenous laws understood, accessed, and applied, sector-by-sector.
As the name implies, Next Steps is taking the next critical step and focuses solely on rebuilding entire legal orders, inclusive of all sectors of law, over a five year period. In this emerging initiative, Indigenous community-based research teams are established as co-creators and decision-makers in research processes and outcomes, supported by the team at the University of Victoria.
What are Indigenous legal orders?
A legal order is the overarching system of law and legal principles and processes that govern a society. Indigenous legal orders are living systems of law embedded in social, political, economic, and spiritual institutions of Indigenous societies.
Next Steps supports Indigenous people to develop and implement their own legal frameworks, reflective of the strength and abundance that has always been there.
Indigenous legal orders are part of ongoing, living legal traditions. Indigenous legal orders include the full scope of law: legal principles, procedures, responses, and governance processes of a particular people, community, or nation. They include the organization and processes of law: institutions, dispute-resolution and decision-making systems, and the public collective memory of responses to legal problems (referred to as precedent).
What methodology are you using?
The methodology is based on the work of Dr. Hadley Friedland and Dr. Val Napoleon, which was built on the previous work of Dr. John Borrows. It is based on the idea that Indigenous law is held in our stories and can be re-articulated by working with Indigenous stories as legal resources. The research is collaborative, transparent, intellectually rigorous, and relationship centred.
It begins with establishing community research teams. The entire process is co-led, co-created, and grounded in community priorities. The resulting research and subsequent outcomes are synthesized and organized into legal frameworks, then re-evaluated as a whole for implementation and application
Why was Secwépemc Nation chosen for the pilot?
The Secwépemc Nation was chosen based on prior partnerships with ILRU to support the rearticulation and implementation of Secwépemc law and governance. Researchers had previously identified and articulated legal principles and processes of co-management and dispute resolution by analyzing Secwépemc legal resources and narratives.
Having completed legal research in the areas of land and resources; citizenship, belonging, and governance; as well as Secwépemc child welfare, the Secwépemc are now working with the Next Steps team to fully articulate their legal orders. Secwépemc Associate Research Directors have already begun working with Nation members on trade and economy and on intersocietal relations.
How do Indigenous legal orders fit with the current legal landscape of Canada?
To call Indigenous law a cultural practice or custom misses its capacity to resolve contemporary issues, govern, manage conflict, and create peace through diversity and difference. Indigenous law is a specific and contextual way to respond to universal human problems.
Next Steps is in alignment with and furthers the goals and principles of Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), as well as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ (MMIWG) Calls to Justice, the Canada United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA), and the British Columbia United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
Next Steps will give substance and fulfill the commitments made in these important declarations, moving them from aspiration to action.
Why does this matter?
Law—and the broader concept of lawfulness—is essential to creating social stability and cohesion. This ground-breaking work will enhance our collective ability to bring order to our lives and enrich intersocietal relationships.
Creating a just future in Canada requires fulfilling the long-standing promises that have been made to Indigenous peoples, that our authority, legal systems, and ways of being and governing ourselves would be respected. In an increasingly polarized world, this work is more vital than ever to building stronger citizenries and respectful relationships.
Simply put, functioning Indigenous legal orders lead to economic stability, social resilience, and a more inclusive democracy for all. They help build civility and mutual respect, creating clarity in decision-making, legitimacy in governance, and stability across jurisdictions. When Indigenous law is strong, Canada is strong.
Connect With Us
We welcome inquiries, collaborations, and conversations from communities, researchers, students, and organizations interested in Indigenous legal revitalization.