As an Indigenous person, I know introductions are important. Introductions place you. They provide others with an understanding of where you come from and what values or perspectives you might have
because of this placement. Introductions provide your legitimacy, your credibility, and your “authenticity” as an Indigenous person. The introduction of myself has changed throughout my life because of this placement of self. It has shifted as I have shifted from place to place, from space to space, and have gained and lost “knowledge” and family. Therefore, this Article will start with an introduction of myself to you.
Tag: Legal Academia
Some Reflections of a Métis Law Student and Assistant Professor on Indigenous Legal Education in Canada
This Article is a reflection on some of my experiences as a Métis law student and assistant professor on the subject of Indigenous legal education in Canada. I introduce myself and what brought me to law school and describe some of my experiences as a law student, as a co-president of an Indigenous Students Association, and as a student organizer for an Indigenous law camp. I argue that a significant barrier to Indigenization and decolonization of Canadian legal education is the perseverance of an ideology rooted in settler colonialism and an individual affective commitment to its future, which is facilitated by racism. The existence and nature of this barrier is highlighted through an exploratory discussion of some of the experiences that are commonly shared by Indigenous law students and professors. I describe my approach to Indigenous legal education at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law (“Lincoln Alexander”) at X University in Toronto, Ontario, as one way to work towards facilitating
efforts towards Indigenization and decolonization
Storytelling and Truth-Telling: Personal Reflections on the Native American Experience in Law Schools
In January of 2021, the American Association of Law Schools (“AALS”) theme was Freedom, Equality and the Common Good. The Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples Section of the AALS embraced the theme and announced a call for personal reflections incorporating the experiences of Native Americans in law schools. The theme of striving for academic freedom and equality allows for an in-depth questioning of
whether Native Americans have been adequately and appropriately represented in legal curricula in the nation’s approximately two hundred law schools. The aspirational goal of realizing the common good must be inclusive of Native American voices as students, faculty, staff, and graduates and in curricula choices in law schools across the country.
From Langdell to Lab: The Opportunities and Challenges of Experiential Learning in the First Semester
In 2019, the University of New Mexico School of Law (“UNM”) inaugurated Lab, a new three-credit experiential course as part of the required first-semester curriculum. The course has many goals, but its over-arching purposes are to “enhanc[e] student readiness to practice,” to “create opportunities for ‘near transfer’ of clinic lawyering skills,” and to “address student concerns that they are prepared to work in the roles of lawyers, introduce students to the challenge of lawyering, and incorporate and inculcate students in lawyer professional roles early and often.” Lab has been successful in capitalizing on the opportunities experiential learning creates for teaching and learning these things; however, it has also confronted the challenges entailed in such a course—especially the challenges of such a course in the first semester.
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