Nationhood Interrupted

Sylvia McAdam, a co-founder of the international movement Idle No More, shares nêhiyaw (Cree) laws so that future generations, both nêhiyaw and non-Indigenous people, may understand and live by them to revitalize Indigenous nationhood.

Co-founder of the international movement Idle No More, Sylvia McAdam shares nêhiyaw (Cree) laws so that future generations may understand and live by them, revitalizing Indigenous nationhood.Traditionally, nêhiyaw (Cree) laws are shared and passed down through oral customs — stories, songs, ceremonies — using lands, waters, animals, land markings and other sacred rites. However, the loss of the languages, customs, and traditions of Indigenous peoples as a direct result of colonization has necessitated this departure from the oral tradition to record the physical laws of the nêhiyaw. McAdam, a co-founder of the international movement Idle No More, shares nêhiyaw laws so that future generations, both nêhiyaw and non-Indigenous people, may understand and live by them to revitalize Indigenous nationhood.