Representing Justice in Indigenous Canadian Crime Films

Abstract

Using Nicole Rafter’s (2006) framework for analyzing crime films and society as a starting point, this paper analyzes fictional Canadian crime films that represent Indigenous peoples in Canada and their struggles for justice. Heeding Rafter’s (2007) call to take crime films seriously as sources of popular knowledge about crime and society, we analyze four films that represent Indigenous peoples, crime and justice in historical and contemporary Canadian settings. We explore the way Indigenous Canadian crime films take up differing standpoints on justice and the causes of crime in a colonial context. Like crime films generally, Indigenous Canadian crime films pose questions about the nature and possibilities of justice. These films do so by juxtaposing traditional Indigenous and western models of justice and by often critically interrogating vengeance/revenge as a potential response to crime and victimization. We argue that Indigenous Canadian crime films replicate many of the plots and themes of crime films more generally, but also diverge in important ways that can shed new light on issues of justice for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Rather than contrasting traditional and critical crime films as Rafter (2006) does in her work on American crime films and society, we instead contrast films framed by “the white camera eye” (Gittings 2002: 198) against those framed by Indigenous filmmakers working toward decolonization. This paper moves criminological film analysis beyond established conventions in the literature on crime films and society while extending the reach of academic criminology into Canadian popular culture.