The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Sermon on the Mount

Abstract

[Figure: see text] This paper examines what the Sermon on the Mount has to say about how Indigenous rights and traditions should be braided together with Canadian law to honour the intent of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and what the Declaration has to say about how the Sermon should be interpreted. The ethical demands of the Sermon require a fundamental respect for Indigenous world views, traditions, and land claims in this process, so that the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples over their lands and their right to self-determination are fully implemented and nation-to-nation relationships upheld between them and the Crown. Conversely, the Declaration decentres the Sermon. It requires that this same respect be demonstrated as the ethical demands of the Sermon are followed.