 Hello everyone, my name is John Boros and I'm grateful to be able to talk to you today about using indigenous law to build community and understand the importance of local community in building our relationships. When I think about this topic, I'm really grateful to be able to address these things from a spiritual perspective. It's something that I don't often have a chance to do as a law professor. I'm going to introduce myself in my own language just here. I'm from the Cape Croker Indian Reserve, or Neyashivirigameng, which is about three hours north of Toronto, four hours north of Detroit on Georgian Bay, just off of Lake Huron in the Great Lakes area. The Great Lakes area of Central North America. That's where my mother and sister live and that's where we've lived for generations. In fact, my great, great grandfather signed a treaty dealing with 1.5 million acres of land in that area, allowing others to come in so that we could share that land with them. I'm speaking to today from Wasanich territory, which is on the south shores of Vancouver Island, which is in the Pacific, just in the northwest part of the United States, the southwest part of Canada. And I'm grateful to live amongst the Wasanich people, a treaty people to and find their hospitality in this place. I also mentioned I'm from the Otter clan. That's my family on my mother's side, and I'm grateful for the teachings of care and hospitality that are associated with that clan. Now when I think about our relationships with one another and what we can do to further advance our spiritual possibilities. I see the natural world as a very important source of, of guidance. And the Baha said, you know, the world indeed each existing being proclaims to us one of the names of God. I really feel that consistent with my tradition, the Anishinaabe tradition. He said within every atom are enshrined the signs that bear testimony of the revelation of that most great light. The thing here which often see my own people and ancestors doing is looking to the earth to see from the earth messages about how we are to understand our relationship to the crater, and how he's placed in the earth messages that help us as human beings live in those messages. In fact, Allah says every time I turn my gaze to the earth, I made to recognize the evidence as I buy power, and the tokens of my beauty. When I behold the sea, I find that it speaketh to me of thy majesty, and the potency of thy might, and of thy sovereignty and of thy grandeur. And at whatever time I contemplate the mountains, I am led to discover the enzymes of thy victory, and the standards of omnipotence. Anishinaabe people would say we see the crater in the natural world. We see his works, we see his beauty, we see his power. When we look at the water and rocks and fish and plants and animals and all of the beauty that surrounds us. In fact, in the teachings and the writings, there's an encouragement to reflect the inner realities of the universe, reflect upon them, the secrets of wisdom involved, the enigmas, the interrelationships, and the rules that govern all. Every part of the universe is connected with every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit of no imbalance. I've written a bit about that in my own work and see that very truth. I've written a bit about the, we must learn law from our ancestors, that the plants and insects, birds, animals have much to teach us. In fact, we are their descendants and some real evolutionary sense, and they are our elders, we wouldn't exist without them. They came first, and they continue to sustain us, and our evolutionary lineage and our biophysical dependence on all of these things around us points to that fact. It's also the case that my teachers have wings and fins and tails and antennae, and sometimes they're fossilized in the rock record, sometimes their clothes and skin, and they're dressed in leaves or they fall from the sky in small drops. These teachers also walk on two legs and identifies atheists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Baha'i, and they're also students and professors, farmers, fishers, chiefs, fishers, chiefs and elders and fellow citizens. That is, they follow different traditions and have widely different worldviews and interests, but they're also all a member of our family, and therefore they all have something to teach us as a part of the human and more than human family. These are my clan teachings, as I've just mentioned a second ago and from the Otter clan. Clans are key to Anishinaabe spiritual identity, and they're inherited from our families. Throughout time, they've also been given through dreams and fasting and prayer and naming ceremonies, they're found in sweat lodges, shaking tents and adoption, and they can be understood with guidance from elders, parents and namesakes. I received my clan from my mother, and from her guidance in aid I learned more about what I was to do with that teaching that comes from Otter. And in turn, my children are Otter and my grandchildren were adopted into this clan through ceremony. If you understood about our creation stories, you would see that our legal order flows from a creation story where the clan animals counseled together. A great flood upon the earth, and a sky woman in falling to the earth asked if there was any way that she could discover a place to be able to rest. For she was given home on the back of a large white goose, and then she was given the home on the large back of a turtle. As they were on the back of this goose, as they were on the back of this turtle, she asked this council of animals if there was something below the waters. And at first a giant otter dove down and was able to be gone for a long time but couldn't find anything. A giant beaver also went below the waters for a long time, came back up, couldn't find anything. The same happened with a loon, the loon go under the waters, couldn't find anything. So sky women with these animals were counseling together about whether or not they could find something upon which we could stand more firmly. Finally, the muskrat, which is the smallest diver, went down for a long time and was gone actually longer than the other three animals. In fact, it was gone so long that the council kind of forgot for a while that they were waiting for her return. But eventually they saw that she draw, she came up from the earth, and she drew a paw full of earth from deep below the surface of the water. And they celebrated her efforts by seeding this soil on the back of the turtle and dancing around the back of the turtle. And in the process the animals combined the elements necessary for the life subsequent generation and regeneration. So what I'm saying here is within our creation story, this flood story, where sky women found place in the back of a turtle, there was a counseling together to be able to bring something from the bottom. And the larger animals weren't able to do it. It was the smallest amongst them that was able to have this accomplished. And when they brought this earth up from the depths that was placed on the back of the turtle and through ceremony they tended to the earth and through tending to the earth through the ceremony. There was a generation and a regeneration of those that organic matter on the back of the turtle, such that we can draw substance from that. And when these animals died, for instance when the giant otter died, the first person from my clan emerged from that carcass. And long after the council's actions were over, life continued to spread across the turtles back as other clans other animals other life forces, a help to spread these possibilities. And what what I'm saying here and this is in line with many different traditions is that humans are the earth's literal offspring. We are evolution's apprenticeship apprentices, and we have much to learn from our Genesis countless stories and other societies narrate similar themes that as we're born from the earth. In Hebrew, the biblical name for the first human is Adama, which means red clay or earth. And the Quran says that among his signs is that he created you from the dust. Right, so there we are with Anishinaabe tradition and Jewish tradition and Islamic tradition and Christian tradition other traditions see God's hand in our creation. In time, we have scientific accounts of life's origins, which also circulate this truth. That is proof that natural selection was drawn from pre existing elements is vast, it's varied, it's magnificent evolution conveys essential facts about the nature of our physical existence. All of these traditions point to our relatedness to the earth, and that holds great social political and spiritual salience. And here that are constitutional genealogy spring elements that are found in the natural world. And so as humans who arrived after the winds waves pulses vibrations drones barks wines growls and calls and songs. We have an opportunity to learn from the crater, and what the crater has put in the sounds of the more than human world. We have a lot to learn from the animals as they continue to express themselves along with the winds and the waves and the times. What I'm saying here is that human civics are not the precondition to healthy living, something primordial precedes us something spiritual precedes us something deeply physically powerful precedes us. And as communities as human communities, we must look backwards to life sources to effectively narrate our forwards. And I really love the idea that this is found in the highest teachings. The universal divine organization is found in the natural system. The seed does not at once become a tree, the embryo does not at once become a man, the mineral does not suddenly become a stone know they grow and develop gradually and attain the limit of their expression their progression. In another place he talked about this expression of spirit is found in the world of matter. Job in the Bible, the book of Job it says this, ask the animals, and they shall teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea and form you. This idea of looking to the more than human world to understand the Creator's will to understand what we might do as humans is something that we call an Anishinaabe when I can oh my gay when I word for earth as a kid. The idea for a learning is to point towards and take direction from. So this idea is to learn by pointing to the earth and taking direction from the earth, seeing in the earth analogies or distinctions from how we might be how we might behave as a humankind. To see law in this way, we then see that law is something that we can do by participating with the earth by taking direction from what we find around us. That is to say that law or these values are standards, principles, criteria, authorities, measures, signposts, guideposts, yardsticks, there are principles and processes for making decisions and resolving our disputes. And so yes, we should read our scriptures and yes, we should pray, and yes, we should join with one another to find spiritual possibilities, but we can also look to the earth, read the scriptures that are found in the earth see that as our archive. See that as our as a library that's given to us by the Creator to do our work. For example, there's a, there's a weather phenomena that takes place in sort of February March around Ontario it's a place that snows for four or five months of the year, but every once in a while and February and March these warm air masses will come up from the Gulf of Mexico. And when that occurs, missed forms across the land, and it's difficult to see, we appreciate the warming trend but it's also a little bit challenging because the distance is reduced our ability to be able to navigate is not always as clear because of that. But this continues to develop for the season, and this this weather phenomena, which we call Abawa means that it's getting warmer, it's getting milder. Things are starting to the thought, there's a flow that's happening things are breaking up. There's a loosening this idea of Abawa and communicates all these points, right loosening flow breaking up. Those are the kinds of things that are involved in Abawa. Well, our word for forgiveness is Abawa Wayne Dunn. Aindum is the process that takes place in your mind. What's being encouraged here is to learn about forgiveness by taking a lesson from that weather phenomena. By analyzing our human behavior to what we see at that time of year in Ontario. So what's forgiveness. It's a thawing between humans. It's a loosening up. It's something that begins to flow. It's a warming trend. Right, it's it's kind of this breaking up of the blockage that's there through the icy times of the year. It's occurring, of course, you still have those myths. And so there's a there's a period of time that this weather phenomena this trend grows on us, which requires increased days with increased light. As the season progresses, with those increased days and that increased light, you eventually get more heat coming from the sun. In other words, you don't get clarity until the season passes. So forgiveness can set in right away. It's something you can practice in the moment to let go to thaw to loosen up to have this flow in relationships. But we don't always expect clarity to flow in the next moment. Right. In other words, forgiveness needs a season of heat and light to be able to have the full benefits of forgiveness settled upon us. And so I hope you see what I'm doing here, which is what Anishinaabe people do with their language and our practices is look to the natural world and find in the natural world principles that we as humans could then take up and try to to guide us. The standards, principles, authority criteria, measures, signpost guideposts for regulating our affairs and resolving our disputes. I'll give you another example. Our word for river mouth where the water pours out is zagin. It's a very powerful place in our territories, because often with the tributaries and the channeling of the water, it sometimes can gather and collect and deliver nutrients from maybe hundreds of miles to the source of that river. And when that occurs, what you get is great diversity of life at that river mouth, where you'll have those all those little microbial creatures that are gathered from the delivery of that nutrients. And then with all of those microbial creatures you'll have little insects that feast on them and grow with them. And with those insects that come along you'll have the fish that will run into and amongst the reeds at that place where the plants are growing a great variety because of those nutrients that are there. So the microbes and the insects and the plants are there and the fish in great variety, because of all of these dimensions of life coming together. Now this of course that soon attracts birds and birds come in great numbers to a river mouth. They gather there in seasonal migratory paths and patterns. And then of course with all those birds there that attracts the animals, animals come in their richness of their variety in different sorts to be able to feast on all of those parts that are there of that whole. And then of course that would then attract humans and so Anishinaabe people would often make their summer camps at the river mouth so they could partake of that richness of life. So that word again is zagin. And if you're from maybe Ontario, you might recognize that word from Mississauga, which is the word for big zaga, which is the outpouring or the big outpouring at the river's mouth, which is a zaga, a mitzha zagin. And we're also known as the zagin Anishinaabe people in our part of the territory. But what's interesting about this pattern is our word for love is and our ideas of love are taken from looking at that river mouth. So our word for love is zagin. Our word for river mouth is zagin. But what is love? It's taking nutrients from all the different parts of our lives, gathering them from the different kinds of tributaries that flow into who we are as people. And with that gathering of nutrients, of that power, of the things that we learn, delivering that and define channels such that there can be a richness and a breadth and a sustainability of life around us. Right, so we want to be, if we want to learn how to love, we have to look to the river mouth. Because the river mouth teaches us about love is differences, diversities of species and life and possibility delivered through power and defined channels in ways that sustain and grow and create the possibilities for other life. So here's another example, right, is trying to understand our spiritual principles as humans, but of course as Anishinaabe people in particular from the world around us. So if you want to learn how to love, you look to a river mouth. If you want to learn how to forgive, you look to the atmospheric phenomena that happens around Ontario in the times of year that I'm talking about. These ideas of nature are so beautiful, because they embody love. In other words, they embody the Creator. In all of the Creator's manifestations, we see this diversity of varying causes and this diversity as science for discernment. We see nature is God's will and its expression in and through the contingent world is always present with us. It's really a dispensation of Providence for us that we have all of these teachers that surround us. The scriptures are literally written on the earth as well as in these beautiful other treasures that we have for us. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I appreciate in the Book of Mormon some of these things being taught in our scriptures. We have a record of the earth weeping and groaning under the weight of pollution that's found in it. We also have all sorts of records of the importance of being careful in relation to the beauties that surround us. I'm hoping the point of this message is coming through, which is through our Creator, through the creation stories that we have, through the scriptures that are written, through the scriptures that are manifest in the natural world, that we'll find ways for peace and security to give love and forgiveness. Seeing the earth is but one country, and there were all citizens of that earth. But there's this remedy for healing the world, which is this union of creation, this union of causes of all people into this way of proceeding. I'm grateful that we can see in the world this temple, this idea of us being gathered in a sacred space to assist one another to allow the very forces of life to continue, and to find this idea of our connectedness. When I introduced myself and my language, I said, Buju Nidinewe and Magani Dok, which is hello all my relations. We are all brothers and sisters. We are all related to one another. And this idea that we need to treat one another with respect will be facilitated if we are reconciled with the natural world. So this is my message today that reconciliation with God and with one another is also bound up with our reconciliation with the natural world. We seek to revitalize the human spirit, the spirit of the waters and the rocks and the plants and the animals and break down the barriers that limit fruitful harmonious cooperation among all of these various elements. And I'm really grateful for this time to be able to give these few thoughts to you. And I look forward to a subsequent discussion later on. Miigwech. And see you later. Take care. Bye.