Denise C. Breton

Denise Breton is the co-founder and executive director of Living Justice Press, a nonprofit publisher devoted to restorative justice. Coauthor of four books, she is now writing Colonizers No More: Who Are We—Winners, Losers, or Relatives? This article was adapted from an essay published in In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: The Dakota Commemorative Marches of the 21st Century, edited by Waziyatawin Angela Wilson (2006, livingjusticepress.org).

2012

Decolonizing Restorative Justice

By Denise C. Breton | January 10, 2012

As with any victim-offender situation, restorative justice processes begin when the perpetrators of harm acknowledge what they did and take responsibility for the harms they caused. If the restorative justice movement fails to address the colonial crimes embedded in our history, it will risk losing credibility in this country, as it seems to have already done in Canada. Restorative justice does not have to be hijacked into being an accomplice to colonization, for its roots are not there.