“Only if the declaration is implemented in a historically informed manner that allows Canada to reconsider the history of the struggle for Indigenous self-determination…will Canada be able to move toward a real nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous peoples.”
John Borrows in Braiding Legal Orders
Braiding Legal Orders: Implementing UNDRIP in Canada
Braiding Legal Orders is the culmination of CIGI’s international law research over the past three years on the implementation in Canada of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Indigenous law experts, including Sa’ke’j Henderson, John Borrows, Brenda Gunn, Joshua Nichols and Sarah Morales, explore what it means to implement UNDRIP in Canada as a step on the path to genuine nation-to-nation relationships. Like a braid that gains strength from many strands woven together, the book’s authors encourage readers to imagine a process of braiding together strands of constitutional, international and Indigenous peoples’ own laws.
On June 4, 2019, the Honourable Mary Jane McCallum referenced CIGI’s work on UNDRIP to the Canadian Senate on the third reading of Bill C-69, as she encouraged her fellow senators to support the bill. Braiding Legal Orders reached the number one spot on Amazon’s bestseller list in the categories of international law and civil law.