As restorative justice matures, questions have been raised about the degree to which practices are sensitive to cultural and racial-ethnic differences or can address inter-racial crime.  This paper explores the similarities and differences between restorative justice and Indigenous sentencing practices, with the view to showing the unique contribution that Indigenous sentencing practices make to racializing justice.  Racialized justice is not a divided justice.  Rather, it refers to practices that recognize and draw on the strengths of racial-ethnic minority group knowledge and community action in responding to crime.  Among the key elements is the participation of community leaders in the justice process, open and honest dialogue between them and admitted offenders about the causes of their offending behavior, and penalties that utilize culturally appropriate and relevant programs and services.  The impact of racialized justice is to build trust and cooperation between and among criminal justice officials and racial-ethnic minority groups, to empower and strengthen racial-ethnic minority groups, and to bend and change the dominant perspective of ‘white law’ toward a more multi-ethnic perspective.  Lessons are drawn from Indigenous sentencing courts in Australia for racializing restorative justice.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not one-time occasions for sweeping the past under the psychological carpet. They are a set of interrelated principles and processes on the path toward healing the harms caused by violence. By insisting on accountability and by dealing with the consequences of human action, they operate on a number of levels. These range from the interpersonal (conflict, crime) to the international (political violence, power projection and war). This plenary examines each of these principles as dynamic components in shaping the way in which we advance the cause of justice. It views restorative justice as a spiritual process leading to the ‘peace that passes all understanding.’ The plenary will explore the role of repentance (‘ultimate honesty,’ in Bonhoeffer’s expression), restitution, remembering and commemorating. Drawing on clinical and historical examples, it will argue that faith traditions offer unique potential for transforming pain into peace, thereby effecting a justice that reaches beyond judicial resolution and political compromise.

Restorative justice is rapidly moving from its nascent and pilot stages toward institutionalization as an approach to justice in a variety of contexts.  This institutionalization has brought with it new and renewed questions about both the theory and practice of restorative justice.  These include questions about the very nature of restorative justice: Is it concerned with the justice of processes or is it a more fundamental claim about the very meaning of justice?  What is the relationship between restorative justice and other prevailing ideas and approaches to justice including: alternative dispute resolution, criminal justice, civil justice and social justice?  The answers to these questions have important implications for the development of principled-based restorative justice and for it successful institutionalization.

One cannot make sense of research results without a theoretical framework for determining what is and is not restorative and mapping the variety of restorative justice practices. Dr. McCold will present a simple typology of restorative justice practices and then summarize the existing research evidence focusing on the effectiveness of restorative practices to reduce recidivism. He will describe a research agenda to allow for both testing restorative justice theory and an evidence-based evolution of best practices.

The news about restorative justice came out just as I was lobbying for the adoption of the Indian Tribal Justice Act of 1991. I have explored what restorative justice might be for many years to see what it can offer for my thinking about the revival of traditional Navajo justice. I am presently exploring the practical application of a traditional law code, The Fundamental Laws of the Dine, and the Navajo Nation Supreme Court is taking a new look at western procedural rules in light of The Fundamental Laws of the Dine. Several Navajo researchers are independently exploring the Navajo “Life Way.”
 
What can indigenous thought contribute to restorative justice? My address will explore ideas from indigenous thinking to suggest that there is a “Life Way” and that we can collectively develop it in restorative justice.