Osgoode Professor Karen Drake (pictured) and colleagues receive SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant for their project, “Identifying Indigenous Standards for Evaluating Indigenous Persons Courts”

The project – a partnership with the Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre – seeks to understand the differences between western norms and Anishinaabe norms for assessing the effectiveness of restorative justice initiatives. Using Anishinaabe norms, the project will develop a methodology and assessment criteria that reflect the ways of knowing, laws, and priorities of the communities served by the Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) First Nation Court and the Sarnia Indigenous Persons Court.

Osgoode Professor Karen Drake is the principal applicant. The co-applicant is Professor Carmela Murdocca, an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at York University.

The two collaborators are Matt Stone and Autumn Johnson. Stone is a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, the President of the Board of Directors of the Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre, a lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario, and a member of the Indigenous Persons Court Committee for the two Courts involved in the project. Johnson is a member of Walpole Island First Nation, a member of the Board of Directors of the Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre, a lawyer, and also a member of the Indigenous Persons Court Committee for the two Courts.

The SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant award is valued at $24,998.