1. University of Alberta, Employment Equity Week, March 17th, 2014
Applying Cree Story-telling to Address Contemporary Justice and Governance Issues

2. Engaging with Indigenous Legal Traditions through Stories

3. Indigenous Legal Traditions
About Indigenous citizenry, self-determination and good governance,
Contain intellectual resources, tools for public reason and deliberation,
Need: Responsible, respectful methods for serious and sustained engagement, within and across communities
Need: Ways for people to be able to access, understand and apply them to today’s justice and governance issues.

4. Why Stories? In Indigenous Societies, Stories are: Tools for Thinking
A Teaching Method
Part of a serious public intellectual and interactive dialogue
A way to record information
Decentralized forms of precedent
Living?

5. Methodology Adapted Common-law Methods -
Legal Analysis and Legal Synthesis applied to analyze all available resources, including:
Publically available or published stories.
Oral Histories
Publically available or published historical, anthropological, or legal literature.
Interviews and conversations with Indigenous elders and community members.
This brings us to the specific “how” for this project – just ONE method. Building on the work of John Borrows, Val Napoleon, to engage with stories in a serious and sustained way. To address some of the many challenges the existing materials present.

6. Recovering Intellectual Resources.
Medicine Wheel Teachings – Engaging with Indigenous Legal Traditions using our Whole Selves:
Often, Indigenous Legal Traditions and Western Legal Traditions are set up as if they are dichotomous – with Western Legal Traditions being primarily about intellectual argument and physical coerciion, and Indigenous Legal Traditions being primarily about the spiritual and emotional.
The Indigenous Law Clinic and this IBA Project approaches Indigenous Legal Traditions as intellectual resources, using traditional pedagogies, such as stories, and adapted analytical t tools from the law school.
Recovering Intellectual Resources.
Reinvigorating Intellectual Traditions.

7. Advantages of this Method:
It’s adapted from a common method law students are familiar with and trained in
It’s a consistent framework that can be taught, learned and applied in law schools and in communities.
It enables us to continually work with law as it develops.
Results aren’t solely reliant on the legitimacy of one resource or a person’s assertion.
Synthesizing a variety of resources creates space for ongoing research, analysis and debate.
It’s a method.
Basically, this method builds on skills that are already taught, and which are already important AND transferable parts of legal education. AND this method gives communities a framework to keep working with, analyzing and debating their legal traditions. BUT the most important advantage- it’s a METHOD. Transparent, replicable.

8. Phase 1 - Legal Analysis: EXAMPLE CASE BRIEF BLANK
Problem (Issue): What is the main human problem that the story focuses on? Facts (Relevant): What facts matter? Decision/Resolution: What is decided or how is the issue resolved? Reason (Ground/ Ratio): What is the reason behind the decision or resolution? Is there an explanation in the story? Said? Unsaid? Bracket [What do you need bracket for yourself in the case? Some things will be beyond your terms of reference but are not necessary to the case analysis.]

9. Phase 2: Legal Synthesis Analytical Framework:
1. Legal Processes: Characteristics of legitimate decision-making/ problem-solving processes
Final Decision makers: Who had the final say?
Procedural Steps: What were the steps involved in determining a response or action?
2. Legal Responses and Resolutions: What principles govern appropriate responses to legal/ human issue?
3. Legal Obligations: What principles govern individual and collective responsibilities? Where are the “shoulds”?
4. Legal Rights: What should people be able to expect from others?
Substantive
Procedural
5. General Underlying Principles: What underlying or recurrent themes emerge in the stories that might not be captured above?
Like the method’s strength is that it is a method, this framework’s major strength is that it is a framework. A way to organize issues and resources within each ‘slice’ of law. Think of this like an outline for a law school exam or a legal memo on an area of law – it’s not about changing information, but about organizing it in a way that is accessible and understandable so it can be readily applied, so we can reason through and problem-solve with the information.

10. The Fort St. John Conference: Connecting Communities through Stories (& bannock)

11. Honouring Existing Strengths and Resiliencies, Building Strong and Healthy Futures

12. Developing New ways to Teach and Learn Ancient and Enduring Wisdom

13. Carrying on Traditions of Active Learning and Lively Thought