Gehl V Canada

Book excerpt: How the Gehl decision advanced indigenous rights in Canada A follow-up to her successful Claiming Anishinaabe, Lynn Gehl's latest book, Gehl v Canada, is the documentation of the Indigenous woman's 34-year fight to change Canada's Indian Act regarding unknown and unstated paternity, a harmful, colonial policy that has adversely affected generations of Indigenous women. It is also the celebration of Gehl's tenacious, brave advocacy for Indigenous women and children in the face of colonial oppression. The paternity policy of the Indian Act required individuals claiming Status to demonstrate the lineage of both parents. Harmful to Indigenous mothers and children, and imposing a high evidentiary burden on Indigenous people claiming Status, it was overturned on April 20, 2017, in what is now known as the Gehl decision. Using Indigenous methods of first-person experience, embodied knowledge, emotional knowledge, observation, reading, writing, role-modelling, learning by doing, repetition, introspection, and storytelling, Gehl shares the journey to her court victory.