Walking the Law throughout the Journey of Nishiyuu

Abstract

Abstract Indigenous journeys are powerful exercises of law and governance. Presently, these journeys have also become a popular means for revitalizing culture and contesting continued colonialism. The Journey of Nishiyuu was a mass social movement in which a group of Uschiniichisuu, Cree youth, travelled a collective 1600 km by foot from their homes in Whapmagoostui, Québec to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario in order to address a variety of social and environmental issues confronting Indigenous Peoples in Canada during the winter of Idle No More (2012/2013). Drawing on conversational interviews conducted with several walkers, their Elders, and community members who volunteered for the Journey of Nishiyuu, I argue that throughout the Journey the Nishiyuu youth walked the law, by which I mean they inherited their authority to govern and exercised their governance by way of walking the land. While making this argument I consider how spiritual imaginations shape legal landscapes and emphasize the itinerant nature and prevailing persistence of Indigenous legal orders.