Named after the Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs (RAVEN) nonprofit organization, The RAVEN Essays is an anthology that celebrates a decade of prize-winning student essays. Since 2012, RAVEN has awarded an annual essay prize to honour students who champion the vital importance of Indigenous rights and self-determination, both in Canada and globally. The essays featured in this collection highlight exceptional student work while reflecting on the evolving relationship between Indigenous politics and academia. From issues like fishing rights and the Trans Mountain Pipeline to challenges of sexism and conservation policy, these essays capture a transformative period in Indigenous struggles, offering insights that resonate far beyond the Canadian settler state.
The anthology also includes contributions from prominent scholars such as Glen Coulthard, Dara Culhane, Michael Fabris, Sarah Hunt, and Heather Dorries. Five complementary essays explore various aspects of structural change, institutional constraints, and broader commitments to Indigenous knowledge within university settings. Aimed at readers in Indigenous law, environmental studies, anthropology, and geography, The RAVEN Essays is a book created by students for students, and by academics for the academy.
Together, the contributors reflect on the powerful formation and enactment of Indigenous law, environmental stewardship, place-based knowledge, pedagogy, and literacy – both within the academy and in the broader community, across land, water, and culture.

“The RAVEN Essays are directed at anyone with an interest in Indigenous interdisciplinary research with a community-oriented perspective. The book is absolutely (without doubt) a collection that is much greater than the sum of its parts. As with the introductory chapters, the closing chapter illuminates the critical importance of the contributions, and the origins (the RAVEN essays) behind the project.” -- Veldon Coburn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Public Administration and Governance and Faculty Chair, Indigenous Relations Initiative, McGill University
“The RAVEN Essays is an excellent read. I appreciated, so much, the voices of the students. I can see this work being provided to the administration of universities that are addressing changes to curriculum and pedagogy that respects Indigenous research methodologies and scholarship. I can also see leadership and policy analysts needing this information for the work that they do in community.” -- Dr. Beverley Jacobs (Mohawk Nation), CM, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Win
“The chapters in this book reflect each author's personal voice and approach to writing. They are not uniform in tone or mode: some use a classic scholarly voice while others use a more autobiographical approach to scholarship, which I think is a good thing. This book will resonate with students and scholars of Indigenous studies, Indigenous governance, and Indigenous law, among others.” -- Damien Lee, Associate Professor, Faculty of of Sociology and Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence, Toronto Metropolitan University

John Borrows is a professor and the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

Dawn Hoogeveen is a research associate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.

Max Ritts is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University.

Susan Smitten is an award-winning filmmaker and writer; she is retired from her role as the executive director of RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs).