Introduction

This chapter identifies the themes of Sami law and rights at the Sommaroya workshop. It offers some reflection on those themes from the perspective of a Canadian academic. The themes that identified during the workshop are as follows: the interaction between different normative orders; the role of the state and settler law in constituting 'the other'; and the significance and implications of the separation of powers for the development and enforcement of the land and resource rights of indigenous communities. Settler states and their indigenous communities face the common challenge of reconciliation notwithstanding their different histories of colonization, whether as blue\saltwater colonies or as colonies that slowly, and over time, encroached on the contiguous territories of indigenous communities. Problems of admissibility of evidence and the weight to be accorded to indigenous oral evidence have also been significant in aboriginal title litigation in Canada. The Norwegian executive must be credited with taking a leadership role in deciding to ratify ILO 169.