[Extract from the graduation thesis Recognition of the rights of the Native Peoples of Canada2015]
Following the drafting of the 1982 Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, many academics, lawyers and experts in criminal law and representatives of First Nations they clamored for the implementation of a judicial process more consistent with native values โโand traditions.ย The possibility, concerning the creation of an alternative criminal procedure, which takes into consideration the native legal vision and the principles that characterize it, is part of the broader discourse concerning the process towards self-determination and self-government that the native populations of Canada have for some decades now.
Le First Nationsย of Canada use the oral tradition to record information considered to be of primary importance, which is collected and shared through a form of literature which holds memory and the spoken word in high regard. Oral transmission allows the normative-behavioral systems of indigenous populations to be subjected, day after day, generation after generation, to continuous creation. A strong point of this methodology is the possibility of reinterpreting traditions in such a way as to come to terms with the needs of the contemporary world, without losing the truth or principles on which the stories are based. Rather, the need for continual modification is based on the understanding that the social context is continually changing, and consequently requires a constant reinterpretation of some of the narrative elements. The fluidity of the tales of First Nations it reflects the attempt to make the deepest sense of the narratives current, adapting it from time to time to the needs of listeners.ย 