Abstracts
Abstract
This article presents the preliminary results of a research project on customary custody and “adoption” in the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam in northeastern Québec. From a legal pluralist perspective, the authors used a biographical method to understand the workings of the ne kupaniem/ne kupanishkuem Innu legal institution, which can be compared in certain respects to adoption in Western legal systems. The authors present certain characteristics of this institution in order to expose the limits of bills that seek to recognize “indigenous customary adoption” in Québec law. Innu “adoption” stems from an agreement between the concerned persons, which can crystallize gradually, which never breaks the original filial link, and which does not immediately create a new filial link. In theory, this type of adoption is not permanent. As such, a Québec law that only recognizes indigenous adoptions that create a new filial link runs the risk of either being ineffective, or of distorting the Innu legal order.
Keywords:
- customary adoption,
- Innu law,
- ne kupaniem/ne kupanishkuem
Appendices
Bibliography
- Atkinson, G. (2010). Adoption Practices: A First Nation Perspective. In J. Carrière (ed.), Aski Awasis/Children of the Earth: First Peoples Speaking on Adoption, Black Point (N.S.), Fernwood.
- Borrows, J. (1996). With or Without You: First Nations Law (in Canada). McGill Law Journal, 41(3), 629.
- Borrows, J. (2010). Canada’s Indigenous Constitution. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Bureau, M.F. (2009). Le droit de la filiation entre ciel et terre : étude du discours juridique québécois. Cowansville : Éditions Yvon Blais.
- Friedland, H., & Napoleon, V. (2016). Gathering the Threads: Developing a Methodology for Researching and Rebuilding Indigenous Legal Traditions. Lakehead Law Journal, 1(1), 16.
- Glenn, P. (2014). Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law, 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Grammond, S. (2013). Terms of Coexistence: Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law. Toronto: Carswell.
- Guay, C., & S. Grammond (2010). À l’écoute des peuples autochtones? Le processus d’adoption de la “loi 125”. Nouvelles pratiques sociales, 23(1), 99
- Guay, C. (2015). Les familles autochtones : des réalités sociohistoriques et contemporaines aux pratiques éducatives singulières. Intervention, 141(2), 17.
- Guay, C. (2016). La légitimité des discours narratifs autochtones dans le développement des connaissances en travail social. Recherches amérindiennes au Québec, 45(2-3), 17.
- Lacasse, J.P. (2004). Les Innus et le territoire : Innu tipenitamun. Québec : Septentrion.
- Lanari, R.E. (1973). L’adoption chez les Amérindiens Montagnais-Naskapis, North West River Labrador (master’s thesis). Memorial University of Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador.
- Law Commission of Canada (2006). Justice Within: Voices of Indigenous Legal Traditions. Ottawa.
- Martin, T. (2009) Pour une sociologie de l’autochtonisme. In N. Gagné, T. Martin, & M. Salaün (Eds.), Autochtonies : Vues de France et du Québec. Québec : Presses de l’Université Laval.
- Otis, G. (2010). Cultures juridiques et gouvernance : cadre conceptuel. In G. Otis et al., (Eds.), Cultures juridiques et gouvernance dans l’espace francophone : Présentation générale d’une problématique. Paris : Éditions des archives contemporaines.
- Pratte, M. (2003). La filiation réinventée : l’enfant menacé?. Revue générale de droit, 33(4), 541.
- Ricard, L. (2014). L’évolution récente de la conception de l’enfant dans le droit québécois : l’exemple de la Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse et des récents projets de loi en matière d’adoption. Revue de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke, 44(1), 27.
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (“TRC”) (2015). Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- Webber, J. (2009). The Grammar of Customary Law. McGill Law Journal, 54(4), 579.
10.7202/1003170ar