Rachel Flowers

Topic

Tl’uts’maat: Woven Close Together. Witnessing The Relationship Between Indigenous Law and Art

Faculty of Law

Date & location

• Friday, October 23, 2026
• 12:00 P.M.
• Fraser Building, Room 292

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Rebecca Johnson, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Andrea Walsh, Department of Anthropology, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Val Napoleon, Faculty of Law, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Michael Asch, Department of Political Science, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Danielle Lussier, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Queen’s University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Rob Hancock, Department of Anthropology, UVic

Abstract

This dissertation is a critical reflection on the role of both weavers and weavings as integral to Coast Salish law. Central to this approach is the process of weaving itself to engage with the work of creating a wool blanket as a form of scholarship as well as becoming a Belonging, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between people and material. The blanket is not a legal document, it is not meant to be read as text, it makes visible the relations and interdependence of all of us. Whereas colonialism attempts to disconnect blankets from their relations and legal functions, demonstrating the material harms of capitalism, blankets continue to perform a vital role in the legal work of witnessing, self-determination, and belonging. From a Quw’utsun Nation perspective, I reconcile individualistic concepts including the self, material culture/objects/Belongings, and nationhood, through a theory of reciprocity. I offer reflections on weaving and the knowledge produced from that experience, which contributes greatly to my understanding of not only the fractures in our relations with ourselves, each other, and the settler state, but also the many opportunities for relationships that bring community into existence. The processes of weaving and writing overlapped with the trial processes of the Cowichan Tribes case, my experience of the case as a Lyackson person is woven into my analysis as well as my journal entries, drawings, and collage work. I engage with the judgement in two ways, first, the legal friction of the court’s effort to measure living oral histories against the rigidity of Western written documents, and second, the problem of exclusivity, which effectively forecloses the possibility for reciprocity and self-determination. I apply the work of weaving a blanket, which offers many points of entry into an interconnected whole, to analyze the political and legal relationships between Indigenous peoples and the state. This dissertation is an invitation to enter and be witness to a web of relations for which the blanket serves as both a mechanism and metaphor.