Aboriginal Oral History in the Courtrooms: More than a matter of evidence

Aboriginal Oral History in the Courtrooms: More than a matter of evidence
A Moderated Panel Discussion

University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC
February 8, 2012

Linc Kesler, First Nations Studies and First Nations House of Learning, UBC
Bruce Granville Miller, Anthropology Department, UBC
Sophie McCall, English Department, Simon Fraser University
Darlene Johnston, Faculty of Law, UBC

How has oral history been used in the courts since the potentially ground-breaking ruling in Delgamuukw? Have Aboriginal oral traditions been put "on an equal footing" with written historical evidence? In this panel, experts from anthropology, law, literature, and Indigenous studies explore how oral narratives might be recognized in courts -- how they might be treated in the long process from their transmission by one person to another, their placement in archives, their handling by Crown and tribal/band researchers, their performance in a courtroom, and finally to their evaluation by trial judges as forms of evidence.

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