Aaron Mills
Appointment
Fellow
Boundaries Membership & Belonging
About
My primary field of inquiry is Indigenous law: I strive to understand indigenous peoples’ systems of law on their own conceptual terms and within their own institutional (and relational) forms. These understandings, in turn, inform how I participate in contemporary indigenous law revitalization projects and how I frame broader questions of legal theory, political theory, comparative law, and Indigenous-settler reconciliation. For the latter kind of question especially, I am mindful of the pervasive context of internal (or settler) colonialism which always underlies it.
As an Anishinaabe scholar, my approach to practise, theory, and method in Indigenous law is informed by 15 years of education with a number of Anishinaabe elders from Treaty #3 and from southern Manitoba. While I have benefit greatly from (and indeed, am passionate about) university education, I learn still more in community and on the land with my Anishinaabe teachers.
Awards
- Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Indigenous Constitutionalism and Philosophy, Canada Research Chairs, 2019
- SSHRC Impact Awards: The Talent Award, SSHRC, 2016
- PETF Doctoral Scholarship, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, 2014-2017
- Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Tri-Council, 2013-2016
- Traditional Fulbright Student Award, Fulbright Canada, 2011
Relevant Publications
- Mills, A. (forthcoming 2024). First Nations’ Citizenship and Kinship Compared: Belonging’s Stake in Legality. Am J Comp L, 72.
- Mills, A. (2018). Rooted Constitutionalism: Growing Political Community. In M. Asch, J. Borrows, & J. Tully (Eds.), Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings (ch 4). University of Toronto Press.
- Mills, A. (2016). The Lifeworlds of Law: On Revitalizing Indigenous Legal Orders Today. McGill LJ, 61:4, 847-884.