Colorizing Restorative Justice

As Quakers we are committed to our Peace Testimony and Restorative Justice is one of the approaches we have often used, inside and outside our communities. But what if these restorative justice practices are deeply impacted by structures and cultures of dominance? Becoming aware of these influences, what alternative perspectives and approaches could we open to?

Leon Dundas is one of the 18 authors of colour who contributed a chapter to the 2021 Benjamin Franklin award winning book “Colorizing Restorative Justice; Voicing our Realities”.

This session will be a facilitated conversation in which participants explore three of the challenging issues raised in Leon’s chapter and others:

1. “Recognizing and addressing first harms” (project lead and native American man, Mr. Ed Valandra) and changing structural relationships between non-dominant and dominant communities.
2. “Sippin the cup of vulnerability” (Gilbert Salazaar et. al.) – white fragility and other forms of entitlement
3. Maintaining robust RJ Practice Standards – i.e. how to colorize accreditation without ghettoizing (lowering) standards.

In the process, we will share stories and Leon will invite you into the kind of circle support process the authors shared leading into, through and beyond the CRJ Book project.