|

Nutshimit: Encountering Indigenous legal systems with Wapanakew

Subtitles available.

Nutshimit is a space. It’s an extremely vast space that sustains the Innu with its myriad resources: the land, the forest, the wildlife of the rivers, the sky, the wind, and so on.

Nutshimit is a vital element in which the Innu and other First Nations circulate, emerge, survive and practice. And it’s here, or also in Nutshimit, that they develop their own order of governance, their legal order.

Nushimit is a screen for an order of governance. And that’s where this legal form begins, establishing rules, rules of behavior, rules of attitude, rules of conduct and rules of governance, rules for regulating individuals in the final analysis. It’s all in nature, after all. Nushimitnormally shouldn’t allow itself to be destroyed or disturbed without good practice.

Nushimit is something unalterable. That’s why Nushimit, in this way of seeing it, is something you have to be imbued with, to be impregnated with. You have to have lived it.

On the occasion of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, the the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and the Jurivision team invite you to discover the wisdom of Elder Raphaël Picard, former chief of Pessamit, as he discusses Nutshimit, the vital space where the Innu shape their ancestral legal order. This vignette invites you to catch a glimpse of the richness of Indigenous stories and legal knowledge, brought to light through the testimonies of elders, while highlighting the importance of ongoing dialogue for reconciliation.

This is an overview of the audiovisual educational content developed as part of the Wapanakew project. This initiative of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law documents Indigenous legal knowledge through engaging audiovisual content designed to raise awareness and educate. The research team collects these invaluable testimonies to enrich the Civil Law Section’s Certificate in Indigenous Law program, thereby creating educational resources that enable Indigenous communities to reconnect with their legal systems while preserving this invaluable knowledge. The audiovisual content produced as part of the project is available in controlled access in the form of video training on the Wapanakew page.

Wapanakew - Logo

References and useful links
About this guest
Raphaël Picard
BEARER OF KNOWLEDGE

Raphaël Picard is a former Chief of the Pessamit Band Council, having served from 2002 to 2012. He holds a master’s degree in anthropology, a graduate diploma in public administration and a doctorate in management. As a writer, he is the author of the novel Nutshimit: vers l’intérieur des terres et des esprits, a work that revives the spirit of the pre-sedentarization, pre-modern Innu. This novel delves into the Innu philosophy of life, deeply rooted in the surrounding nature and the great migrations, offering a vision of the symbiosis between native peoples and their environment.

Stay informed of our latest news and publications