Pamela Palmater
Biographic Data
| ID | 454577 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pamela Palmater |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pamela |
| FAMILY NAME | Palmater |
| SIGNATURE | PALMATER P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Toronto Metropolitan University |
| ORCID | 0009-0009-6262-7742 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Mi’kmaw Oral History as Law: Narrative Authority and Indigenous Legal Sovereignty
In this article, I examine Mi’kmaw oral histories as living sources of law that ground Mi’kmaw sovereignty, governance, and collective memory. Within Mi’kmaw legal traditions, stories are not simply historical accounts but forms of legal narration transmitted through relationships between storytellers and witnessing communities. Narrative authority arises through protocols: who can tell the stories, how ancestral memories are shared, and why ther…
Clash Actions: Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights and Class Actions
As many face significant financial costs and legal barriers to accessing justice to remedy systemic human rights violations rooted in colonialism, they are increasingly turning to class action litigation for recognition of harms and to safeguard others. Drawing on Canadian examples, including a class action involving First Nations children, this article examines the complex and sometimes conflicting relationship between class actions and human ri…
Matnm tel-Mi'kmawi: I'm Fighting for My Mi'kmaw Identity
I am a Mi'kmaw woman who was born into a large Mi'kmaw family. We have always lived on the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaw Nation even if not always in our home community of Ogpi'kanjik (Eel River Bar First Nation). My family instilled in me a strong sense of Mi'kmaw identity, yet I have been engaged in a legal and political battle, waged by Canada, to not only protect my identity as a Mi'kmaw woman, but also the Mi'kmaw identity of my child…
Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity
Author Pamela Palmater argues that the Indian Act's registration provisions (status) will lead to the extinguishment of First Nations as legal and constitutional entities. The current status criteria contain descent-based rules akin to blood quantum that are particularly discriminatory against women and their descendants. Beginning with an historic overview of legislative enactments defining Indian status and their impact on First Nations, the au…
Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens
Indigenous Nationhood is a selection of blog posts by well-known lawyer, activist and academic Pamela Palmater. Palmater offers critical legal and political commentary and analysis on legislation, Aboriginal rights, Canadian politics, First Nations politics and social issues such as murdered and missing Indigenous women, poverty, economics, identity and culture. Palmater's writing tackles myths and stereotypes about Indigenous peoples head-on, di…
Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence
In a moment where unlawful pipelines are built on Indigenous territories, the RCMP make illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands, and anti-Indigenous racism permeates on social media; the government lie that is reconciliation is exposed. Renowned lawyer, author, speaker and activist, Pamela Palmater returns to wade through media headlines and government propaganda and get to heart of key issues lost in the noise. Warrior Life: Indigenou…
Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry
Canada has had a long-standing problem with both societal and institutional racism against Indigenous peoples, especially within the justice system. Numerous national inquiries, commissions, and investigations have all concluded that every level of the justice system has failed Indigenous peoples. More recent inquiries indicate that racism against Indigenous peoples is particularly problematic in police forces in Canada. Yet, despite the evidence…
Genocide, Indian Policy, and Legislated Elimination of Indians in Canada
The primary objective of early Indian policy was to ensure the eventual disappearance of Indians - a goal which has not changed in hundreds of years. The registration provisions in the Indian Act will achieve this goal through entitlement criteria, which ensures legislative extinction after two generations of marrying out. This has resulted in two separate legal categories of federally recognized registrants: status and non-status Indians, where …
Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry
Canada has had a long-standing problem with both societal and institutional racism against Indigenous peoples, especially within the justice system. Numerous national inquiries, commissions, and investigations have all concluded that every level of the justice system has failed Indigenous peoples. More recent inquiries indicate that racism against Indigenous peoples is particularly problematic in police forces in Canada. Yet, despite the evidence…
Genocide, Indian Policy, and Legislated Elimination of Indians in Canada
The primary objective of early Indian policy was to ensure the eventual disappearance of Indians - a goal which has not changed in hundreds of years. The registration provisions in the Indian Act will achieve this goal through entitlement criteria, which ensures legislative extinction after two generations of marrying out. This has resulted in two separate legal categories of federally recognized registrants: status and non-status Indians, where …
Clash Actions: Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights and Class Actions
As many face significant financial costs and legal barriers to accessing justice to remedy systemic human rights violations rooted in colonialism, they are increasingly turning to class action litigation for recognition of harms and to safeguard others. Drawing on Canadian examples, including a class action involving First Nations children, this article examines the complex and sometimes conflicting relationship between class actions and human ri…
Matnm tel-Mi'kmawi: I'm Fighting for My Mi'kmaw Identity
I am a Mi'kmaw woman who was born into a large Mi'kmaw family. We have always lived on the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaw Nation even if not always in our home community of Ogpi'kanjik (Eel River Bar First Nation). My family instilled in me a strong sense of Mi'kmaw identity, yet I have been engaged in a legal and political battle, waged by Canada, to not only protect my identity as a Mi'kmaw woman, but also the Mi'kmaw identity of my child…
Genocide, Indian Policy, and Legislated Elimination of Indians in Canada
The primary objective of early Indian policy was to ensure the eventual disappearance of Indians - a goal which has not changed in hundreds of years. The registration provisions in the Indian Act will achieve this goal through entitlement criteria, which ensures legislative extinction after two generations of marrying out. This has resulted in two separate legal categories of federally recognized registrants: status and non-status Indians, where …
Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry
Canada has had a long-standing problem with both societal and institutional racism against Indigenous peoples, especially within the justice system. Numerous national inquiries, commissions, and investigations have all concluded that every level of the justice system has failed Indigenous peoples. More recent inquiries indicate that racism against Indigenous peoples is particularly problematic in police forces in Canada. Yet, despite the evidence…
Matnm tel-Mi'kmawi: I'm Fighting for My Mi'kmaw Identity
I am a Mi'kmaw woman who was born into a large Mi'kmaw family. We have always lived on the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaw Nation even if not always in our home community of Ogpi'kanjik (Eel River Bar First Nation). My family instilled in me a strong sense of Mi'kmaw identity, yet I have been engaged in a legal and political battle, waged by Canada, to not only protect my identity as a Mi'kmaw woman, but also the Mi'kmaw identity of my child…
Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity
Author Pamela Palmater argues that the Indian Act's registration provisions (status) will lead to the extinguishment of First Nations as legal and constitutional entities. The current status criteria contain descent-based rules akin to blood quantum that are particularly discriminatory against women and their descendants. Beginning with an historic overview of legislative enactments defining Indian status and their impact on First Nations, the au…
Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens
Indigenous Nationhood is a selection of blog posts by well-known lawyer, activist and academic Pamela Palmater. Palmater offers critical legal and political commentary and analysis on legislation, Aboriginal rights, Canadian politics, First Nations politics and social issues such as murdered and missing Indigenous women, poverty, economics, identity and culture. Palmater's writing tackles myths and stereotypes about Indigenous peoples head-on, di…
Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence
In a moment where unlawful pipelines are built on Indigenous territories, the RCMP make illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands, and anti-Indigenous racism permeates on social media; the government lie that is reconciliation is exposed. Renowned lawyer, author, speaker and activist, Pamela Palmater returns to wade through media headlines and government propaganda and get to heart of key issues lost in the noise. Warrior Life: Indigenou…
Clash Actions: Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights and Class Actions
As many face significant financial costs and legal barriers to accessing justice to remedy systemic human rights violations rooted in colonialism, they are increasingly turning to class action litigation for recognition of harms and to safeguard others. Drawing on Canadian examples, including a class action involving First Nations children, this article examines the complex and sometimes conflicting relationship between class actions and human ri…
Mi’kmaw Oral History as Law: Narrative Authority and Indigenous Legal Sovereignty
In this article, I examine Mi’kmaw oral histories as living sources of law that ground Mi’kmaw sovereignty, governance, and collective memory. Within Mi’kmaw legal traditions, stories are not simply historical accounts but forms of legal narration transmitted through relationships between storytellers and witnessing communities. Narrative authority arises through protocols: who can tell the stories, how ancestral memories are shared, and why ther…
Indigenous (6 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Art (2 works) · Biology (2 works) · canada (2 works) · Civil rights (2 works) · Ecology (2 works)