"This paper pursues an ambitious agenda in that it seeks to decolonise Indigenous relations with (the) State(s), departing from the very sources and forms of knowledge, commonly established logics and structures in the academic world, and by introducing the reader to Indigenous forms of knowledge and heritage, Indigenous proper approaches to science and Indigenous justice systems. These epistemological reflections go hand in hand with a rethinking of legal terminology which the publication strives to indigenise or to ‘despensar’ classical law, notably by pluralising epistemologies but also through a critical approach taken towards entire justice systems with the objective of transforming these into more inclusive orders." (Executive summary)

"This publication is based on findings derived from the panels in the 11th edition of the Multidisciplinary Meeting on Indigenous Peoples (EMPI) held in early June 2024 at Sciences Po Paris. The meeting brought together scholars which resulted in co-authorship of this publication. We decided to publish it under the ifa Edition Culture and Foreign Policy publication series as we recognise the challenge to open up the legal discipline to questions of decoloniality—an endeavour which has been soberly taken up by the authors of this paper, including in terms of methodology. However, the authors underline that this publication tackles merely the first steps for opening the legal discipline to questions of power imbalances and a self-reflection of dominant epistemologies and their historical legacies." (Foreword, page 4)