Anishinaabe Law, Land and Natural World

Anishinaabe peoples are not the land’s first inhabitants. Plants, fish, insects, birds, and animals were already following well-established patterns regulating life in the waters and lands. To survive, Anishinaabe peoples had to accommodate ourselves to these pre-existing processes. These activities took many forms, including ceremonies acknowledging and petitioning the plants, fish, insects, birds, animals and other beings to favour, teach, and feed them, in return for promises made by Anishinaabe people to honour them in various ways. Agreements with the more-than-human world eventually spread to the Anishinaabe’s neighbours such as the Wendat and Haudenosaunee. When Europeans arrived, the Anishinaabe did not relinquish these views. Georgian Bay’s more-than-human presence continues to teach us about these agreements. They can be revitalized and harmonized with subsequent treaties with the Crown.

Lecturer – Dr. John Borrows

John Borrows B.A., M.A., J.D., LL.M. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, York, SFU, Queen’s & Law Society of Ontario), D.H.L, (Hons., Toronto), D.Litt. (Hons., Waterloo), F.R.S.C., O.C., is the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto Law School. He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts, the 2020 Governor General’s Innovation Award. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020. John is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation.