Vancouver law firm seeks legal grounding of unwritten Indigenous laws

A Vancouver law firm is trying to give unwrittenIndigenous laws more legal sway.

The project, spearheaded by West Coast Environmental Law,rewrites traditional and often forgottenancestral laws intomodern legal terms. Maxine Matilpi, the project's lead, says the goal is to give First Nations greatervoice in legal decisions that affect their communities.

"There's a real need for it," said Matlipi."There are lots of communities that have environmental issues that they're wanting to address, and sometimes going through the whole court process is huge and onerous."

She says Indigenous laws are not to be confused with Aboriginal laws, which are written withinthe Canadian justice system and pertain to treaty rights and enforcement.

In contrast, Indigenous laws predate the Canadian Constitution, saidMatlipi, meaning they have less legalstanding. Theyare unique to different communities, and are often depicted in traditional narratives, language, song, and dances.

Uncovering Indigenous law

The group is currently working with several First Nations includingSt't'imc Nation,Shuswap Nation Tribal Council, andTsilhqot'in Nation, to uncover some of their old Indigenous laws.

The process involves going through traditional stories, and extracting a series of legal principles from them. The principles are rewritten into a Canadian legal framework, which, for example, could be used to create a formal environmental policy that protects their resources.

Ideally, the policies would be enforceable on the ground, says Matlipi.

But she admits there's beensome areas criticism.

"We recognize that the methodology that we're using might not be perfect, and is within a colonial construct but it's a start."

The group recently opened their doors to a new cohort of clients in hopes of expanding the current pool of five.

"It's a year long process, and a pretty exciting opportunity to deepen community based capacity to articulate indigenous law and to work together on some pretty important stuff."

With files from CBC'sRadio West

To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled:Vancouver firm seeks legal grounding of unwritten Indigenous laws