About Restorative Approaches

Indigenous Roots of Restorative Approaches

Restorative Justice (RJ) has its roots in non-Western conceptions of community balance, harm prevention, repair, and healing. Contemporary RJ programs in the West have drawn their inspiration, tools, frameworks, and practices directly from the traditions of Māori, First Nation, and many other Indigenous peoples around the world. The following resources are not a comprehensive guide to the Indigenous roots of restorative approaches – they are a starting point for honoring the Indigenous knowledge undergirding our work.

A 13 minute video on Indigenous peacemaking from the Native American Rights Fund.

This 27 minute video looks at the Kake Circle Peacemaking Program in Kake, Alaska, which incorporates a traditional approach from the Tlingit people.

Circles is a film that looks at the practice of circle sentencing among native people in the Yukon, and its role in healing the intergenerational trauma born of genocide and cultural repression. Accessible via Kanopy with a New Orleans Public Library card.

Peacemaking Today summarizes a discussion between 10 Native American justice practitioners at a roundtable on contemporary peacemaking practices hosted by the Center for Court Innovation.

Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation, and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part One

Part one of this 2-part series from the International Institute of Restorative Approaches grounds readers in some of the indigenous frameworks of peacemaking from which Western restorative justice approaches are drawn, through interviews with three justice practitioners from the Navajo and Hualapai Nations.

Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation, and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part One

Part two of this series includes interviews with justice practitioners from the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne and the Mnjikaning First Nation.

The Wet’suwet’en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice Program: Restorative Practices in British Columbia, Canada is a look at the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s Restorative Justice program, established in 1992 but grounded in thousands of years of aboriginal knowledge and tradition.

Potlatch Justice is an academic study of the Peacegiving Courts of the Coos, Coquille, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Native peoples, with an emphasis on how colonization disrupted traditional restorative approaches to harm and justice.

An extensive collection of resources from the National Indian Law Library on various peacemaking traditions in different indigenous cultures. For further exploration!

Understanding Restorative Approaches: What, How, Why?

This video series from Building Accountable Communities (BAC) Project is a collaboration between Project NIA and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. They offer short explorations of questions like “what is accountability?” and “what does justice look like for survivors?” Responses are crowdsourced from interviews with RJ practitioners around the U.S. Transcripts are available, as well as other supportive resources to explore.

Restorative Justice: Why Do We Need It? is a three-minute video breaking down why Restorative Justice is a better approach to addressing harm, conflict, and crime than is our current criminal legal system.

Two Sides of Justice is a collection of audio stories from people enmeshed in the criminal legal system, sharing and reflecting on their experiences with “justice.” The narratives are accompanied by a curriculum to support engagement via group activities and discussion around punitive approaches to justice.

Something is Wrong Curriculum is a resource from the folks at Chicago’s Project NIA. It offers nearly 400 pages of curricular activities and lesson plans aimed at helping young people (middle and high-school aged) identify the true roots of youth violence: structural oppression.

Restorative Approaches in Practice: Examples

Abuser and Survivor, Face to Face is a profile in the Atlantic on a Restorative Justice approach to Domestic Violence.

Community Accountability: Emerging Movements to Transform Violence, is an issue of Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order with ten different articles highlighting restorative approaches to gender-based violence across the U.S.

The Restorative Justice Listening Project is a 2017 report from the Ahimsa Collective surveying contemporary Restorative Justice programs in the U.S.

We’re in it for the Long Haul is an in-depth report from Project NIA on Restorative Justice alternatives to incarceration for youth in Chicago.

Restorative Approaches in Practice: Tools

Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation is an article in Truthout from activist and organizer Ejeris Dixon on lessons learned from serving as Program Coordinator at the Safe Outside the System Collective.

Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence is a practical resource from Creative Interventions and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence full of tools for leveraging community to intervene, safety plan, and support involved parties in situations of interpersonal harm.

Practicing New Social Relations, Even in Conflict is a quick read from activist Dean Spade on how to respond restoratively to interpersonal conflict in community organizing spaces.

Stand-up Start-up is a resource zine from Philly Stands Up on forming community-based, restorative justice responses to incidents of sexual assault.

Steps to End Prisons & Policing: A Mixtape on Transformative Justice, curated by Just Practice, is a collection of 9 recorded workshops and webinars on creating community safety without prisons and policing.