Towards Legal Recognition for Non-Human Relations: Supernatural Beings & Sacred Places

On October 18, 2021, the University of British Columbia (UBC) Centre for Law & the Environment (CLE), in collaboration with the UBC Sustainability Initiative and the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, held the second in a series of four webinars for individuals and organizations from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities interested in enacting laws that respect and protect non-human beings like rivers, lakes, species and ecosystems. This second webinar focuses on supernatural beings and sacred places.

Panelists:

Award-winning Tŝilhqot’in filmmaker, writer, and photographer Trevor Mack will speak about the legend of Tsʼilʔos (Mount Tatlow) and the Tŝilhqot’in nation's efforts to protect and revitalize their relationship with the ancestors who were transformed into mountains in the Chilcotin range of British Columbia.

Māori legal scholar Jacinta Ruru of the University of Otago will speak about Tikanga Māori and recent treaty settlements that recognize that natural systems like rivers, mountains and forests have mauri (spiritual life force) and tapu (sacredness) and are descendants of atua (gods).