{"id":8517,"date":"2022-06-01T10:16:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T14:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/bgins\/?post_type=cu_people&p=8517"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T19:13:26","slug":"viviane-weitzner","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/bgins\/people\/viviane-weitzner\/","title":{"rendered":"Viviane Weitzner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For over 20 years, I have had the privilege of accompanying and supporting Indigenous and Afro-Descendant peoples in the Americas \u2013 from the Arctic to the Tropics \u2013 in their collective life projects and strategies for territorial defence. I use my skills as an award-winning legal anthropologist, researcher and writer \u2013 and as a translator between worlds \u2013 to open up possibilities for transformative change. And at a time when \u201cour house is on fire\u201d (Greta Thunberg), \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d (George Floyd) and when the global COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc with day-to-day life everywhere, I find ever more motivation in my work accompanying communities to pave pathways towards social and environmental justice, respectful and peaceful relations, self-determination and \u201ca world where many worlds fit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a professor, I intertwine my activist and applied approach with theoretical dialogue. I draw on novel sources that go beyond the written form, and that are inclusive of diverse perspectives often marginalized in northern academia. I bring into the classroom examples and analysis from my own fieldwork and engagement with the literature on decolonial activist research, legal pluralism, Indigenous and Afro-Descendant rights, and social and environmental\/climate justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am affiliated with McGill University as an Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology; and as Senior Program Advisor of the Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives<\/a> (CICADA), where I co-lead the research axis on \u201cIndigenous Law, Indigenous Rights and Interlegalities.\u201d I also provide policy advice to the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme<\/a>, specifically on issues around Business and Human Rights and Legal Support. I am a former Senior Researcher, Governance and Natural Resources, of The North-South Institute (NSI), a think-tank based in Ottawa, where I led over ten years of programming<\/a> on Indigenous and Afro-Descendant perspectives to decision-making about extractives projects affecting ancestral lands in the Americas. I am founder and principal researcher of Collective Matters<\/em>. www.vivianeweitzner.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Selected Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forthcoming (2022): <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

& Marlin Mancilla. Activist anthropology \u201con the live edge\u201d in Colombia: Conversations among collaborators. In Research Handbook on Law, Movements, and Social Change<\/em>, S. Boutcher, C. Shdaimah and Michael Yarbrough, eds. Edward Elgar Publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guardia,Guardia!:<\/em> Autonomies and territorial defense in the context of Colombia\u2019s post Peace-Accord. In Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Self-Government in the Diverse Americas<\/em>, M. Gonz\u00e1lez, A. Burguete Cal y Mayor, J.  Mariman, P. Ortiz T. & R. Funaki (Eds). University of Calgary Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published:<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021<\/td>\u201cThe Green Monster\u201d: <\/em>Perspectives and recommendations from the Black People of Northern Cauca regarding the sugar sector in Colombia<\/a>. Policy Paper. Moreton-on-Marsh: Forest Peoples Programme and Palenke Alto Cauca \u2013 Proceso de Comunidades Negras.<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/td>Alchemy in un mundo al rev\u00e9s<\/em>: Gold, \u201cRaw Law\u201d and Indigenous Law in Colombia\u2019s armed conflict. Cahiers des Am\u00e9riques latines<\/em> No. 94, Nouveaux d\u00e9fis du pluralisme juridique en Am\u00e9rique latine.135-156 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4000\/cal.11445<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
2019<\/td>\u201cUninvited \u2018guests\u2019: Harnessing free, prior and informed consent in Colombia.\u201d In Free, Prior and Informed Consent Protocols as Instruments of Autonomy: Laying Foundations for Rights Based Engagement<\/em><\/a>, C. Doyle, A Whitmore and H. Tugendhat eds., K\u00f6ln, InFOE, ENIP. 48-65.<\/td><\/tr>
2019<\/td>Between panic and hope<\/em>: Indigenous peoples, gold, violence(s) and FPIC in Colombia, through the lens of time. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law<\/em> 51 (1): 3-28. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/07329113.2019.1573489<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
2017<\/td>\u201cNosotros Somos Estado\u201d:<\/em> Contested legalities in decision-making about extractives affecting ancestral territories in Colombia. Third World Quarterly<\/em> 38(5) May: 1198-1214. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01436597.2017.1302328<\/a>

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Machado, M., D. L\u00f3pez Matta, M. M. Campo, A. Escobar and V. Weitzner. 2017. Weaving hope in ancestral black territories in Colombia: the reach and limitations of free, prior, and informed consultation and consent. Third World Quarterly<\/em> 38(5) May: 1075-1091. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01436597.2017.1278686<\/a><\/p><\/td><\/tr>

2011<\/td>Tipping the Power Balance\u2014Making Free, Prior and Informed Consent Work: Lessons and policy directions from 10 years of action research on extractives with Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples in the Americas<\/a>. Ottawa, Canada: The North-South Institute.<\/td><\/tr>
2011<\/td>A House Undermined: Transforming relations between mining companies and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas<\/a>. Policy Brief. Spring. Ottawa, Canada: The North-South Institute.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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