Peter A Allard School of Law

Faculty Profile: Assistant Professor Johnny Mack

CBL_Johnny Mac

Professor Johnny Mack is from the Toquaht Nation (Nuu-chah-nulth) and researches on Indigenous legal traditions in settler state contexts and the intersection of Indigenous law and economic development.

What brought you to a career in legal research and education?
Like many of us, I was a high achieving student at the end of undergraduate studies in the early 2000’s wondering what next. As an Indigenous student, my undergraduate studies were focused on Indigenous histories in Canada and elsewhere, and theories of colonialism and internal colonialism. This education was mind-blowing, as I was able to understand that the struggle and pain so obviously in my First Nations community was not our own making. At least not all of it. Indigenous dispossession and subjugation were real things that happen to Indigenous people not just in general but to my people, my family in particular. In working to understand how Indigenous dispossession was achieved and sustained, law kept coming to the forefront. I went into law school as an attempt to better understand law as a form of power rather than going into practice. So when I graduated, this time as a high achieving law student, the question of what next remained and was answered in much the same way. I went on to study law at the graduate level with the hope of eventually obtaining an academic post. That happened in 2014 when hired by UBC.

What area of law do you research?
I have two general areas of focus. The first is on Indigenous legal traditions in settler state contexts which include places like Canada, the USA, New Zealand, and Australia. Basically, places that were previously colonized by Europe, but the Europeans never went home and Indigenous peoples remain. In these contexts, Indigenous law is generally occupies very little space within mainstream legal institutions and my research works to identify how this space can be expanded. I also work to understand Indigenous legal traditions on their own terms and identify the ways we, as Indigenous communities, can continue to grow these traditions to meet contemporary needs.

The second area of interest relates to the intersection of Indigenous law and what is broadly referred to as economic development. More specifically what I am referring to is the self-determined enhancement of Indigenous societal well-being. Generally speaking, this work begins by identifying Indigenous norms that relate to wellbeing, ascribing those norms appropriate weight, and then making them available to the contemporary decision makers and decision making processes that relate to development. This research was funded by SSHRC and began collaboratively, working with my Nation, the Toquaht and resulted in an online sustainability assessment system as a decision support and impact evaluation tool. If you like, follow this link to a 3 minute that provides a basic overview of the assessment system. https://vimeo.com/266907333

Last Updated: Mar 2021

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