Nin Tomas Memorial Lecture: Professor Val Napoleon
The Third Annual Nin Tomas Memorial Lecture was delivered by Professor Val Napoleon from the University of Victoria
Lecture description
Gitxsan Legal Personhood of Women and Girls - A Gendered Perspective
Imagine the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls as legal agents, persons, and citizens operating within and through their surrounding power relations. How does this switch in perspective influence your understanding of the missing and murdered women and girls? Val Napoleon often asks students and audiences these questions to disrupt the predictable public imagination that pathologizes Indigenous women and girls into one-dimensional victims who came from naturally violent communities or made unfortunate lifestyle choices.
Napoleon's lecture examined several specific questions about how the Gitxsan legal tradition historically defined the legal personhood of Gitxsan women and girls, and how this has changed with colonization. She took specific aspects of the operation and structure of Gitxsan law and legal institutions to explore the ways they are gendered in practice. This exploration included rights and rights bearers, individual and collective culpability and liability, marriage, divorce, and governance.
