White Noise - Episode 9: Building treaty relationships with Professor John Borrows and Michael Johnston

Show Notes - Episode 9 - Building treaty relationships

In this episode of the White Noise podcast we speak with Professor John Borrows and Michael Johnston, Anishinaabe lawyers and scholars visiting from Canada.

In this conversation we discuss relations between Indigenous peoples and other parties through treaty relations, including thinking about Indigenous law and University institutions.

The Indigenous Law and Justice Hub is based at Melbourne Law School, within the University of Melbourne. You can find out more about us on our website, or by following us on Instagram.

The White Noise podcast is hosted by Jaynaya Dwyer, Lecturer at the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub.

The soundtrack, White Noise, is written and performed by John Wayne (Yuggerabul Meriam Le), with guitar by Cisco. We are grateful to these musicians for lending his voice to this program.

We are honoured to be joined by our guests, who generously shared their wisdom:

• Professor John Borrows
• Michael Johnston

Our sincere to Greta Robenstone and James Griew for their work on the production of this podcast.

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

We discussed the following selection of Professor John Borrows’ work:

• John Borrows, ‘Making meaning: Indigenous legal
  education and student action’ (2022) 67(4) McGill Law Journal 493.
• John Borrows and Kent McNeil (eds) Voicing Identity: Cultural Appropriation and Indigenous Issues (University of Toronto Press, 2022)
• John Borrows, Larry Chartrand, Oonagh E Fitzgerald and Rise Schwartz (eds) Braiding Legal Orders: Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019)
• Michael Asch, John Borrows and James Tully (eds)
  Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings (University of Toronto Press, 2018)
• John Borrows, Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (University of Toronto Press, 2002)

In our conversation we referred to the words of the powerful Māori constitutional thinker Moana Jackson, that ‘treaties aren’t meant to be settled, they’re meant to be honoured.’ You can read the full interview this quote is from, ‘Moana Jackson: I’m absolutely sure transformation is coming’ on e-tangata.

You can learn more about the joint degree in common law and Indigenous legal orders that Professor Borrows and Professor Val Napoleon have established via the University of Victoria Law website.

In this conversation we spoke about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, passed by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. Read the UNDRIP here.
We also spoke about the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, delivered in 2015. You can read the report here.