Restorative Justice

This final chapter turns to restorative justice as an alternative to the punishment-focused systems explored throughout the book. Through Joy Harjo’s poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” we examine how her vision of the kitchen table offers a radical reimagining of justice—one rooted in community, shared nourishment, and healing rather than separation and retribution. N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn provides another lens for understanding Indigenous approaches to addressing harm and restoring relationships. Shakespeare’s The Tempest offers a surprising complement: Prospero’s choice of “the rarer action” over vengeance demonstrates how even colonial narratives can illuminate restoration. Together, these literary works illuminate restorative practices that prioritize repairing communities over punishing individuals, suggesting that genuine justice emerges from the daily work of caring for one another across difference and through conflict.