Cultural Restoration in International Law: Pathways to Indigenous Self-Determination.

Source: (2012) Canadian Journal of Human Rights. 1(1): 93-125.

How are land-based and water-based cultural harms addressed and remedied for
Indigenous peoples? Under existing international legal norms, states and other
non-state entities have a duty to provide redress for the harms of colonialism
and occupation, and this obligation extends to the recognition and protection
of Indigenous territories as well as regenerating subsistence living through
land-based and water-based cultural practices. What role do international
treaties and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples play
in terms of promoting comprehensive restorative justice for Indigenous
communities? Given that the rights discourse can take Indigenous peoples
only so far in this struggle for the reclamation and regeneration of Indigenous
traditional lifestyles, what are some strategies that other Indigenous peoples
have utilized to promote sustainable self-determination? Overall, findings from
this research offer theoretical and applied understandings for regenerating
indigenous nationhood and restoring sustainable relationships on indigenous
homelands. (author’s abstract)