By Tarek Maussili
Law, Rights, and Lived Realities
As a law student, I carry my lived experiences into my academic pursuits. In Lima, institutions like IDEHPUCP address issues of democracy, human rights, and transitional justice in a country where Indigenous peoples have suffered the most during internal conflicts. In Canada, while Section 35 and UNDRIP recognition seem promising legally, the reality of dispossession, poverty, and systemic racism reveals a significant gap between laws and actual lives. I would like to explore this disconnect, particularly within academic circles. When I participated in the pilgrimage I mentioned in my previous blog, Quyllurit’i demonstrated that Indigenous rights go beyond legal definitions; they are active, living practices. Communities participate in pilgrimages, ceremonies, and speak their languages daily. While the law may acknowledge these practices, it cannot fully encompass or contain them.
Climbing the Andes brought a sense of humility. Before my human rights internship, I completed an Indigenous field studies course, which included a week in Kanehsatake, a sovereign Mohawk Territory. Humility constantly teaches me, especially within Indigenous lifeworlds, where it is a fundamental value. I understand humility through my lived experiences as a Nêhiyaw in settler Canada. I emphasize this within a colonial context to highlight the epistemological and cosmological spaces I engage with when entering new lifeworlds. My Mohawk relatives taught me that The Great Peace, the Kaianere’kówa, requires laying down weapons and anger. The Andes showed me that peace also involves listening to the land, our bodies, and our communities. While Indigeneity in Peru and Canada differ, both are connected through the concept of survivance. The stars over the Andes, like those back home on Turtle Island, remind us that our ancestors are with us, and we have a responsibility to preserve their teachings.
Beyond Law
My experience at IDEHPUCP taught me that the discourse on human rights often risks simplifying Indigenous experiences into legal categories. What is truly essential is to listen to Indigenous voices and their worldviews on their own terms. As Aaron Mills points out, Indigenous legal systems cannot be comprehended through colonial perspectives. I observed how Andean communities resist being seen merely as protected entities; instead, they affirm themselves as nations with their own teachings, responsibilities, and worldviews that transcend legal definitions. I have come to understand that human rights and legal texts have their limits. While IDEHPUCP performs important work, the key insight is that authentic justice is not only codified in laws but must be lived and practiced within communities. Change in law and society is driven by people, not institutions. Therefore, justice and laws should be embodied, practiced, and enacted within communities. For me, this internship was not just about studying human rights academically; it was about humility, survivance, and recognizing that Indigeneity is not confined by borders, nor is sovereignty limited by borders or legal restrictions.
