Windsor Law will launch the new Indigenous Legal Orders Institute with a film screening, guest lecture, and reception on Friday, Nov. 1.
The institute aims to promote and assist Indigenous peoples with the revitalization and dissemination of their respective Indigenous legal orders through relationship building, collaboration, and re-development using Indigenous and other creative research methods.
The institute is directed by professor Valarie Waboose; team members include professors Beverly Jacobs and Sylvia McAdam, Indigenous legal studies co-ordinator Michelle Nahdee, and student research assistants Meghan Chant and Lyann Ordenes. The institute’s logo, designed by Mohawk artist Patrick Sandy, is representative of the medicine wheel, the Two Row Wampum, Turtle Island, and the water.
“Windsor Law has strived to respond meaningfully to the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in recent years,” says dean Christopher Waters. “Among other things, we have placed Indigenous Legal Orders at the heart of what we do in our first-year program and we have instituted an elder-in-residence program.
“Under the leadership of Dr. Waboose, the ILOI will take our programming to the next level. It will showcase the incredible research and teaching going on in the Faculty, the University and in our partner First Nations.”
Friday’s launch event will begin in the Ron W. Ianni Faculty of Law Building’s Moot Court with a 9 a.m. film screening of Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Tasha Hubbard’s soon-to-be-released film about Colten Bushie and his family’s pursuit of justice. A guest lecture featuring Elanore Sunchild, a Cree lawyer from Thunderchild First Nation, and Jade Tootoosis, cousin of the late Colten Boushie, will directly follow the screening.
The afternoon will conclude with a reception at 1 p.m. in the law building’s upper commons area. The launch events are free and open to the public, but those wishing to attend the reception are asked to register: https://events.attend.com/f/1383790564
—Rachelle Prince