Tools for Land Back Across the Former Empire

Abstract

The process of land return to Indigenous peoples in former or current colonial states -- sometimes called land rematriation or repatriation, and popularly known as ‘land back’—is increasingly creative in the use of legal and financial tools rooted in English common law. Conservation easements, land trusts, co-management agreements, land transfers with covenants or restrictions, carbon offsets, tax credits, and direct philanthropic donations are all mechanisms of transfer of partial or full control of homelands to First Peoples. Drawing on work in the US and Caribbean, this project examines a suite of legal and political tools that Indigenous peoples in former British colonies are using in order to re-establish Indigenous land access, protection, and stewardship. Recognizing that Indigenous epistemologies and legal theories differ from the British legal theory that underlies many property rights regimes in former British colonies, this project is attentive to the ways in which Indigenous peoples and allies modify common colonial property tools and concepts to make them more culturally acceptable. 

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More information about Professor Beth Rose Middleton Manning