The province’s first Indigenous court was established in New Westminster in 2006, with the seventh iteration scheduled to begin sitting monthly at the Williams Lake courthouse in May. An Indigenous court is a sentencing court — it does not conduct trials, but it provides an Indigenous perspective, based on a holistic and restorative approach, to sentencing individuals who have acknowledged responsibility for their criminal offences. Local Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers who have completed a program of orientation give advice on a healing plan, which may then be incorporated as part of a fit sentence for the individual who has pleaded guilty. Courts are located at New Westminster, Duncan, Kamloops, North Vancouver, Merritt and Prince George.