Research summary
Early Anglo-European settlers in North America recognized that there were significant differences between their own notions of land ownership and Indigenous relationships with the land, and they often characterized Indigenous ways as “holding land in common” or “feudalism.” But how can Indigenous nations uncover their own paradigms of land-relationships upon which their laws and politics are founded? Dr. Noelani Arista, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Land, Governance and Language, is working to answer this question.
She is investigating how to locate, rebuild and analyze Indigenous discourses of land-relationships as the foundation of Indigenous nations’ sovereignty and governance. To do this, she and her research team are creating an enhanced archive of written and oral sources in both Hawaiian and English.