#365Indigenous
Freda Huson was awarded the “Right Livelihood” award — known as the alternative Nobel — “For her fearless dedication to reclaiming her people’s culture and defending their land against disastrous pipeline projects.” Freda Huson is a chief (Dzeke ze’) from the Wet’suwet’en people in Canada who has been a leading advocate for Indigenous communities reconnecting with their…
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Lee Maracle, a giant of Indigenous scholarship, poet and writer, mentor, activist, and Stó:lō matriarch, is dead at 71. Writing in the Globe and Mail, Marsha Lederman says that “legendary Indigenous storyteller Lee Maracle was a powerful writer – poet, novelist, essayist. She was also a fierce activist with an indomitable presence. If you spent…
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Dr. Pamela D. Palmater is a Mi’kmaw citizen and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick. A practicing lawyer for decades, Palmater also holds the Chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University. A formidable scholar, she has her Masters and Doctorate in law from Dalhousie University Law School, where she…
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Kwakwaka’wakw lawyer and MP Jody Wilson Raybould is a trailblazing Indigenous leader. Celebrating Puglaas, today and every day. #365indigenous
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Marion Buller is a Cree woman and member of Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan. Buller was the first female Indigenous judge appointed to the British Columbia provincial court, where she served 22 years. She established the First Nations Courts of British Columbia in 2006, a criminal sentencing court which uses restorative justice and traditional ways…
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Murray Sinclair’s Ojibway name Mizanay Gheezhik: “The One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky.” He grew up on the former St. Peter’s Indian Reserve in the Selkirk area north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. After being called to the bar in Manitoba in 1980, Sinclair worked to advance Aboriginal rights as a professor at the University…
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Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson (Gid7ahl-Gudsllaay Lalaxaaygans) is a Haida musician, author, activist, artist, and lawyer who has dedicated herself to the continuation of Haida language and culture. Born and raised in Haida Gwaii, Williams-Davidson was given the name “Lalaxaaygans” – meaning “Beautiful Sound” – by her maternal great-grandmother Susan Williams, who was a song custodian. Through her…
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Cree lawyer and writer Delia Opekokew is from Canoe Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. A residential school survivor, she blazed a trail as the first First Nations lawyer to ever be admitted to the bar association in Ontario and in Saskatchewan. Fresh out of law school she was a partner at Zlotkin & Opekokew,…
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Ardith Walkem is a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation and grew up in Spence’s Bridge, Salmon Arm and Chilliwack. A formidable force for justice, Walkem is the trailblazing first Indigenous woman to be appointed as a judge to the BC Supreme Court. Called to the bar in 1996, Walkem practiced with Cedar and Sage Law,…
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Dr. John Borrows is Anishinaabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada. Borrows credits his mother with teaching him about Indigenous laws while he grew up near Cape Croker, on Georgian Bay in Ontario. Borrows’ uncle was a former chief, a great-grandfather was a long-serving councillor, and his…
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