Indigenous Spirituality and Religious Freedom
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- May 2025
- Category
- Indigenous Peoples, Native American, Indigenous Studies
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781487505295
- Publish Date
- May 2025
- List Price
- $85.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781487523794
- Publish Date
- May 2025
- List Price
- $34.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781487531942
- Publish Date
- May 2025
- List Price
- $34.95
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Description
Indigenous Spiritualities and Religious Freedom investigates the complex relationship between Indigenous legal orders and Canadian law, emphasizing the richness of Indigenous spiritual practices alongside their historical and ongoing suppression by the Canadian state. It critically examines the role and limitations of the Canadian Charter of Right’s section 2(a), which guarantees freedom of religion, in protecting the spiritual lives of Indigenous communities.
The book highlights the holistic nature of Indigenous spiritual beliefs, which view the spiritual as immanent and closely tied to land and specific locations. The book reveals how, by contrast, the Anglo-American conception of religious freedom often separates spiritual and religious matters from civic and political concerns, and so fails to provide meaningful protection for Indigenous cultural and spiritual practices.
Many essays in this collection propose alternative approaches to the relationship between Canadian law and Indigenous legal orders, particularly regarding Indigenous spiritual practices. Ultimately, Indigenous Spiritualities and Religious Freedom reveals the challenges – and perhaps the futility – of seeking significant protection for Indigenous spiritual practices within the existing framework of religious freedom.
About the authors
Jeffery Hewitt is an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.
Beverly Jacobs is the senior advisor to the president on Indigenous relations and outreach, and an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor.
Richard Moon is a distinguished university professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor.
