Indigenous People

Abstract

The higher rates of Indigenous peoples throughout CJSs are recognized social justice violations. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how decolonizing justice practices creates culturally safe spaces for Indigenous peoples by identifying who Indigenous peoples are. Central to Indigenous identities are belief systems and values which guide people’s behaviors; these are conceptualized within Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Colonial practices have attempted to extinguish Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing and exposed Indigenous communities to significant trauma. CJSs are weaponized to fulfil colonial goals. As consumers, Indigenous peoples are dehumanized and negatively stereotyped. This perpetuates Indigenous over-representation throughout CJSs. As agents, they are commonly assigned roles as ‘soft agents of control’, created to support Indigenous consumers but are forced to facilitate social control. Through these examples, we identify justice practices that have created culturally safe spaces for Indigenous peoples. These include embedding Indigenous models of social and emotional wellbeing for young people in prison. These examples provide a foundation for our recommendations that the CJS needs to re-frame policies and practices to prioritize Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.