Interfering with Indigenous Law: Settler Colonial Invasion and Land Theft

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne speaks to Daniel Rück about his award-winning book, The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada published by the University of British Columbia Press for the Osgoode Society Canadian Legal History in 2021. Based on his doctoral dissertation, Rück’s work is a history of the relationship between Kahnawà:ke and Canada and the interference of settler law on Indigenous law. By focusing on land use rights, Rück reveals the ways in which the settler nation conflicted with Indigenous laws and governance of Kahnawà:ke. He further details the tactics of the colonizers in expanding the settler state. The book also investigates larger issues such as legal pluralism, historical racism, inequality, and human relations with the environment. Daniel Rück is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa in Department of History and the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies. He is a settler scholar living and working on the unceded territory of the Algonquin nation along the Kitchissippi (also known as the Ottawa River). This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. Image credit: Library and Archives Canada If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.