Hadley Friedland, LLB, LLM, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Indigenous law Aboriginal law family law child welfare law criminal justice therapeutic jurisprudence community-led research

About

Hadley Friedland is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law. Her research focuses on Indigenous law, Aboriginal law, Family law and Child Welfare law, Criminal Justice, Therapeutic jurisprudence and Community-led research.

Dr. Friedland holds a Child and Youth Care diploma from MacEwan University, an LLB from the University of Victoria, and an LLM and PhD from the University of Alberta. She received a Governor General gold medal for her doctoral dissertation and was the inaugural SSHRC Impact Talent Award recipient. She currently holds a Killam Accelerator Research Award. Dr. Friedland helped establish the Indigenous Law Research Unit [ILRU] at the University of Victoria and was its first Research Director. She has had the honour of working with Indigenous communities across Canada to identify and articulate their own laws. She has published numerous academic articles as well as collaboratively produced accessible Indigenous legal resources. Since 2019, Dr. Friedland has worked extensively on public and continuing legal education related to Bill C92, the Canadian federal Indigenous child welfare act. She is author of the book, The Wetiko (Windigo) Legal Principles: Cree and Anishinabek Responses to Violence and Victimization, University of Toronto Press, 2018.

Dr. Friedland is Academic Director, Principal Investigator and Co-founder of the Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge, a dedicated research initiative developed to uphold Indigenous law through supporting community-led research. 

Research

• Indigenous Law
• Aboriginal Law
• Child Welfare Law
• Criminal Justice
• Therapeutic Jurisprudence
• Community-led Research

Publications: 

Books: 

The Wetiko (Windigo) Legal Principles: Cree and Anishinabek Responses to Violence and Victimization (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018).

Journal Articles and Book Chapters: 

"To Light a Candle: A Solution-Focused Approach toward Transforming the Relationship between Indigenous Legal Traditions and the Criminal Justice System” (2023) 56:1 UBC Law Review 70, online

"Reclaiming Indigenous Economic Development through Participatory Action Research” (2021) 21(3) Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 30, with Astrid Perez Pinan, Judith Sayers and Matt Murphy, online.

“Reference Re: Racine v Woods” (2021) Special Edition: Systems Disruption: Reimagining Canada’s Aboriginal Rights Jurisprudence Collection Canadian Native Law Report 155, online.

“Wahkohtowin: Principles, Process and Practices” (2021) 9 Canadian Legal Education Annual Review 75, with Shalene Jobin, Renee Beausoleil and Tara Kappo.

“Introduction: Law Justice and Reconciliation in a Post-TRC Canada” (2019) 56:3 Alberta Law Review 659, with Cathy Bell, online: https://www.albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/view/2532

“Practical Engagement with Indigenous Legal Traditions on Environmental Issues: Some of the Questions” in Allan Ingleson, ed., Environment in the Courtroom (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019).

“Porcupine and Other Stories: Legal Relations in Secwépemcúlecw” (2018) 48(1 ) Revue générale de droit, with Bonnie Leonard, Jessica Asch and Kelly Mortimer.

“Indigenous Laws in Law Schools: Trans-systemia or Transformation?” in Yaëll Emerich et Marie-Andrée Plante, eds., Repenser les paradigmes: approches transsystémiques du droit (Montreal: Thomson Reuters Éditions Yvon Blais, 2018).

“Indigenous Legal Traditions: Roots to Renaissance” in Margot A. Hurlbert, ed., Pursuing Justice: An Introduction to Justice Studies (Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2018), with Val Napoleon (reprinted, updated, from Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law, 2014).

“Face à la violence et à la vulnérabilité humaine Les réponses juridiques autochtones au Canada. Entretien avec Hadley Friedland & Val Napoleon” (2017) 92 (4) Mouvements 105. Translated by: Martin Lamotte and Nacira Guenif, with Val Napoleon and Martin Lamotte.

“Waniskā: Reimagining the Future with Indigenous Legal Traditions” (2016) 33 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 85, online: https://wyaj.uwindsor.ca/index.php/wyaj/article/view/4811

“Navigating through Narratives of Despair: Making Space for the Cree Reasonable Person in the Canadian Justice System.” (2016) 67 University of New Brunswick Law Journal 269, online: https://www.cerp.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_clients/Documents_deposes_a_la_Commission/P-277.pdf

“An Inside Job: Engaging with Indigenous Legal Traditions Through Stories” (2016) 61:4 McGill Law Journal 1, with Val Napoleon, online: https://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/article/an-inside-job-engaging-with-indigenous-legal-traditions-through-stories/

“Gathering the Threads: Developing a Methodology for Researching and Rebuilding Indigenous Legal Traditions.” (2015) 1(1) Lakehead Law Journal 33, with Val Napoleon, online: https://llj.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/1408

“Indigenous Legal Traditions: Roots to Renaissance” in Markus Dubber & Tatjanie Hoernie, eds., The Oxford Handbook on Criminal Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), with Val Napoleon.

“Chapter 11: Accessing Tully: Political Philosophy for the Everyday and the Everyone”, in Robert Nichols and Jakheet Singh, eds., Freedom and Democracy in an Imperial Context: Dialogues with James Tully (New York: Routledge, 2014), with Val Napoleon.

“The Eye that Blinks: A Book that Shaped My World – Chaim Potok, The Chosen” (2013) 50 (4) Alberta Law Review 1.

“Reflective Frameworks: Methods for Accessing, Understanding and Applying Indigenous Laws” (2013) 11 (2) Indigenous Law Journal 1, online: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ilj/article/view/27628

 “Not So Naked After All: A Review of Frances Widdowson & Albert Howard, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation” (2010) 41(2) Ottawa Law Review, with FC DeCoste.

 “Tragic Choices and the Division of Sorrow: Speaking about Race, Culture and Community Traumatization in the Lives of Children” (2009) 25 (2) Canadian Journal of Family Law 223, online: https://www.cerp.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_clients/Documents_deposes_a_la_Commission/P-278.pdf

“Different Stories: Aboriginal People, Order and the Failure of the Criminal Justice System” (2009) 72 (1) Saskatchewan Law Review 105. 

Other:

"Doing Better for Indigenous Children: Jordan's Principle Accountability Mechanisms Report" (Mar. 2022), online, for Indigenous Services Canada and First Nations Caring Society, with Naiomi Metallic and Shelby Thomas.  

"Judicial Workbook: Bill C-92, An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families" (Apr. 2022), online, Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge, with Naiomi Metallic and Koren Lightning-Earle.

“Bill C-92: Prenatal Provision Guide for Health Care Professionals” (Feb. 2020), online, Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge, with Dr. Cassandra Felske-Durksen.

“Bill C-92: Compliance Guide for Social Workers and Service Providers” (Jan. 2020), online, Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge, with Koren Lightning Earle.

“Quebec’s Misguided Challenge to Federal Indigenous Child Welfare Law” (Jan., 2020), online, Dalhousie Law Journal Blog, with Christiane Guay and Naiomi Metallic.

“Bill C-92: National Standards Guide for Legal Professionals” (Dec, 2019), online, Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge.

“The Promises and Pitfalls of Bill C92: An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families” (June, 2019) Yellowhead Institute Special Feature, online, Yellowhead Institute, with Naiomi Metallic and Sarah Morales.

“Pour la reconnaissance des traditions juridiques autochtones” in Justice Alternative: quand punir ne suffit pas Revue Relations March-April 2019, online, Revue Relations.

“An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families: Does Bill C-92 Make the Grade?” (March, 2019), Yellowhead Institute Special Feature, online, Yellowhead Institute, with Naiomi Metallic, Sarah Morales, Jeffrey Hewitt and Aimee Craft.

“Indigenous Law can Help Confront Intergenerational Injustice, Policy Options, Oct 5, 2018, online, Policy Options. 

Creating New Stories: Indigenous Legal Principles on Reconciliation (June, 2014). Photo Story prepared for the AJR Project, online, Keegitah Wordpress, with Lindsay Borrows.

“Practical Engagement with Indigenous Legal Traditions on Environmental Issues: Some Questions”, in: Environmental Education for Judges and Court Practitioners (University of Calgary, Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2012), online, Canada Institute of Resources Law. 

LAW 486 - Jurisprudence

An examination of law from a theoretical rather than a doctrinal perspective. Every year, the course will consist of a number of seminar offerings whose focus will be on a broader theoretical examination of law, legal processes, and institutions. Each of these courses will allow a critical examination of law from a variety of perspectives such as; legal theory, literature, politics, economics, social and cultural development, and religion.

Browse more courses taught by Hadley Friedland

The Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge is a dedicated research unit based out of the University of Alberta with the objective of upholding Indigenous laws and governance through community-directed research and learning. Our goals are to:

• Support Indigenous communities’ goals to identify, articulate, and implement their own laws and governance,
• Develop, gather, amplify, and transfer wise practices, promising methods and research tools,
• Produce useful and accessible public legal education and practical governance resources.

The Wahkohtowin Lodge responds to the expressed needs of Indigenous communities and organizations and specifically answers the TRC Call to Action #50, which calls for the creation of Indigenous Law Institutes for the “development, use and understanding of Indigenous laws.”

Hadley Friedland

UBC Law Review. 2023 December; 56 (1):70

Hadley Friedland

Canadian Native Law Reporter . 2021 February; Kent McNeil and Naiomi Metallic, eds., Special Edition: Systems Disruption: Reimagining Canada’s Aboriginal Rights Jurisprudence Collection