In many western countries, judicial decisions are based on “black letter law” – text-based, well-established law. Within this tradition, testimony based on what witnesses have heard from others, known as hearsay, cannot be considered as legitimate evidence. This interdiction, however, presents significant difficulties for Aboriginal plaintiffs who rely on oral rather than written accounts for knowledge transmission.

This important book breaks new ground by asking how oral histories might be incorporated into the existing court system. Through compelling analysis of Aboriginal, legal, and anthropological concepts of fact and evidence, Oral History on Trial traces the long trajectory of oral history from community to court, and offers a sophisticated critique of the Crown’s use of Aboriginal materials in key cases.

A bold intervention in legal and anthropological scholarship, this book is a timely consideration of an urgent issue facing Indigenous communities worldwide and the courts hearing their cases.

This compelling analysis of Aboriginal, legal, and anthropological concepts of fact and evidence argues for the inclusion of Aboriginal oral histories in Canadian courts, and pushes for a reconsideration of the Crown's approach to oral history.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Issues in Law and Social Science

2 The Social Life of Oral Narratives

3 Aboriginal and Other Perspectives

4 Court and Crown

5 The Way Forward? An Anthropological View

6 Conclusions

References

Index

Oral History on Trial is a long overdue and important book with huge potential to shift the debates concerning the role of Indigenous oral histories and their narrators in the Canadian courts and beyond.