We had the honour of hearing from Dr. John Borrows (member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation): Indigenous lawyer, scholar, prolific author and teacher. We also heard from RAVEN’s Executive Director Susan Smitten, who carries the founding vision of RAVEN forward every single day with her warm, spirited and ambitious leadership. In the 12 years of helming RAVEN she’s gone from having 3 campaigns and struggling to keep the lights on and the phone bill paid to running nine campaigns. Under Susan’s leadership RAVEN has backed Indigenous legal challenges that have stopped pipelines, pushed back against open pit mines, protected thousands of acres of land and water and created better laws. 

Dr. John Borrows is a fantastic teacher, who is a founder of the groundbreaking Joint Indigneous -Common Law Degree Program at the University of Victoria while holding the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law. Author, lawyer, scholar and member of RAVEN’s own legal advisory panel, Dr. John Borrows is an eloquent as he is generous, and we are so so happy to have had the honour to sit at his knee and hear his perspective on what has been a challenging year full of sorrow, and, perhaps, opportunity.

We are happy to share the video recording of this special webinar, “Unearthing Sorrows, Planting Hope” with you.