In the face of ongoing colonial violence across the land now known as Canada, Indigenous families and communities of the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit+ (MMIWG2S+) people continue to navigate a criminal justice system that has long ignored and neglected the murders and disappearances. This grassroots work has been important in raising awareness, mobilizing action, and generating resources and support across the land. The 500+ Unearthing Justices Resource Collection (UJRC) is a publicly available database of more than 500 documented Indigenous grassroots organizing and mobilizing for the MMIWG2S+ people. The magnitude of local activities documented in the 500+ UJRC highlight the vast resources, skills, and strengths that already exist within Indigenous communities, particularly in the absence and neglect of state and institutional justice. These powerful and transformative community care initiatives reveal the many facets of what justice is and needs, well beyond what a criminal justice system can provide. Using a justice mapping approach, this article traces the Indigenous-based initiatives of vigils & marches, search support, community patrols, and community accountability to show how they are not only central to addressing the murders and disappearances, but also for imagining other possibilities for justice.
justice mapping, Indigenous grassroots, missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit+ (MMIWG2S+) people
Featured Resources
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
2022 | Australia
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…
Featured Resources
Simone Athayde, Jose Silva-Lugo, Marianne Schmink, Aturi Kaiabi, Michael Heckenberger
2017 | South America
Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding…
Hanna Guttorm, Lea Kantonen, Britt Kramvig, Aili Pyhälä
2021 | Europe
In this chapter we want to bring Indigenous ontologies and ways of knowing into the practices of decolonized research-storying. One implication about that is bringing Eana, Earth in North Sámi, as a narrator into the text. This text is a collaborative endeavour, where we write about and with our encountering…
Olivia E.T. Yates, Shiloh Groot, Sam Manuela, Andreas Neef
2023 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Background and Aims: Many Pacific people are considering cross‐border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The ‘Migration with dignity’ concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in…
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles
2022 | Australia
Recent work in development studies asked: “whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?”This article will analyse the ongoingness of imperialism in order to illuminate sources of injusticeand inequity in tourism. It will also delve into historical understandings of the capacities oftourism in a time when revolutionary, decolonising leadership looked to…