Anishinaabe Laws & Customs Research: Forming the foundation of the Koognaasewin Law
A foundational piece of the Koognaasewin Initiative is delving into how children were raised before Europeans arrived, the laws, customs and traditions that made Anishinaabe families and communities strong and resilient for millennia, and how bringing back these laws, customs and traditions will help communities restore their jurisdiction over their children. Understanding and respecting the Anishinaabe Way of raising children has been acknowledged by North Shore communities as a central component for creating a new, community-led Child Well-Being Law.
Through a series of blog posts, the Koognaasewin Team wants to take members along this research journey – through the archival material, historical documents, reports, journals and books, and, most importantly, discussion with Elders and Knowledge Keepers, to share and showcase the enormous wealth of knowledge about the Anishinaabe Way of raising children: Koognaasewin.
Anishinaabe Laws & Customs Research: Forming the foundation of the Koognaasewin Law
At a North Shore Tribal Council meeting held on October 18th, 2018, the 7 North Shore First Nations expressed their desire to develop a local, Anishinaabe-based Child Welfare Law premised on their inherent rights and law-making authority. Through resolution, The North Shore Tribal Council directed that the development of the Anishinaabe child well-being law be grounded in Anishinaabe laws, customs, practices, needs and expectations to ensure the full development of the Anishinaabe child as an Anishinaabe family member, community member, and nation member.
A meeting was held on October 29th and 30th of 2019 in Sault Ste. Marie. It was attended by participants from the North Shore Tribal Council Board and executive leadership, Nogdawindamin Board members and senior administrative staff, community leadership, health directors, band representatives, and Elders. This meeting involved sharing, learning, and visioning for the development of a child wellbeing law.
This was followed by the development of a working group and technical committee to support and guide the project – Koognaasewin (raising children). The working group is comprised of community leaders and/or senior staff, and the technical group is comprised of community representatives who work within the child welfare field and have direct day-to-day experience with the system.
The primary goal of this research was to gather, analyze, and articulate relevant community knowledge around child wellbeing in the 7 North Shore communities. The research was overseen by an Academic Advisory Group and included the extensive work of three archival researchers.
Focus groups and interviews were conducted over 2021-2022 in most of the North Shore First Nations and Nogdawindamin elders and cultural advisors. The participants provided feedback and input that directly informs the structure and content of the final research report.
This research is grounded in what is called a ‘narrative analysis methodology’ that was developed by Hadley Friedland and Val Napoleon, based on the work of John Borrows. This research approach begins by asking a specific research question. For this research, Sarah Jackson and her team began by asking two questions:
How are Anishinaabe child wellbeing laws developed, upheld, and maintained and by whom?
How should conflicts and harms that affect the health and wellbeing of abinoojiinyag be addressed?
The team then worked to “identify and articulate legal principles from stories”. This step involved asking specific questions of stories using what is called ‘the case brief model’.
After working through these stories, the third step in the narrative analysis methodology is to create a framework including ‘a primer and a synthesis’. This is essentially a framework for organizing information regarding a legal subject area in an accessible, convenient way so that it can be readily analyzed and applied.
This Anishinaabe Laws & Customs research is unique in that it also included additional sections that focus on “koognaasewin” - best practices for raising children as well as best practices around dispute resolution. It was important to include the koognaasewin section to put a spotlight on the strengths and resiliencies embedded in Anishinaaabe approaches to raising children. Regarding dispute resolution, this section of the report includes specific insight into traditional dispute resolution practices that will ultimately inform the legislative (legal) and systemic Re-Imagining components of the Koognaasewin project.
The first part of the research report introduces 5 broad underlying principles that will help guide decision-making around Anishinaabe children and youth. They are:
· Gichinaakinagewin or “the laws of the land” were given to the Anishinabek by the Creator. They define the obligations of Anishinaabe people to aki (land), niibi (water), and to one another. Anishinaabe people learn how to govern and how to live together from aki and niibi.
· Minigoziwin or “inherent sovereignty” is rooted in the long history of law-making on Anishinaabe akiing and in the obligations Anishinaabe people hold to creation. Anishinaabe law-making over child wellbeing is rooted in minigoziwin.
· Debandaagziwin or “connection to one’s nation and territory” encourages decision-makers and nation members to expand their conceptions of kinship and nationhood and to work towards recovering ties with members of the Anishinaabe nation who have been dislocated or disconnected from “where their roots are.”
· Mkwenim eko niizhwaaching ankoobjigananag or “considering the next seven generations” is a guiding principle for all decision-making, particularly decisions around children and youth and the environment. This principle implies that all decisions made in regards to child well-being should consider the impacts on the next seven generations.
· Mno bimaadziwin or “the good life” requires an individual to live in a way that honours their individual gifts and purpose while also fulfilling their obligations to their family and community. In practice, mno bimaadziwin requires that conditions be put in place to give children and youth an opportunity to find and live out their own understanding of mno bimaadziwin.
· Aanjigone or “non-interference” is grounded in the understanding that human action or interference is not always necessary since there are natural and spiritual consequences to every thought and action. This approach encourages caregivers to interfere with children and youth only when absolutely necessary to prevent harm.
Our next blog post will highlight stories that reflect Koognaasewin and Anishinaabe law, customs and traditions, passed down through generations to inform and guide the development of a new Child Well-Being Law.