The Great Circle of Justice: North American Indigenous Justice and Contemporary Restoration Programs.

Source: (2007) Contemporary Justice Review. 10(2):215-225.

Based upon many North American traditional indigenous ideas, we suggest that restoring justice requires a more communal approach. Preventative, as well as restorative, mechanisms and practices need to be restored throughout a community for there to be healing and justice. We focus upon an approach that can provide communities with social structures based on traditional teachings rather than imposed colonial ideas and structures. We hope that some of the indigenous ideas in this paper will inspire people to take a critical look at their communities, the absence or misuse of traditional teachings, and the disharmony that imposed structures create. (author’s abstract0