Lakehead University appointed Angelique EagleWoman as the dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, on Jan. 13, 2016. EagleWoman is the first Aboriginal woman in history to become dean of a Canadian Law School. She will take up the position in May 2016, a month before Lakehead University’s first law class is set to graduate.
The Bora Laskin Faculty of Law is Canada’s newest law institute, and EagleWoman’s appointment occurred three years after the school’s conception.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail, EagleWoman said that the next generation of lawyers will better understand and help restore the country’s relationship with indigenous peoples. She also hopes her appointment will “open the doors,” for individuals who would not think about law a career—specifically, indigenous people and women.
“Our law graduates will know that history, will know those legal relationships, and then they can go out and they can help with the new collaboration, the new reconciliation,” said EagleWoman in a Jan. 13, 2016 interview with the Globe and Mail.
EagleWoman believes that her appointment is a “natural progression,” that will allow others to follow in her footsteps.
“As more and more indigenous people become lawyers, we’re also law professors and law deans. And hopefully by blazing this trail, others will follow,” said EagleWoman in the same interview.
EagleWoman is currently a law professor and legal scholar at the University of Idaho. Her background includes tribal economic development, legal code development, litigation, criminal law, and scholarly interest in international indigenous law. She told CBC News that she is impressed with Lakehead’s focus on rural and small-town practice and environmental law.
EagleWoman was also drawn to Lakehead due to their focus of indigenous law. Lakehead law students have to take mandatory indigenous law classes in their first and second years of study.
This requirement fulfils the recommendations outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which calls for all Canadian law students to take courses in indigenous and Aboriginal law, in addition to the history and legacy of Canada’s residential schools.
According to EagleWoman, these recommendation ensure “that this next generation of lawyers would know what the history is and what the legal relationship is between the Canadian federal and provincial governments and indigenous communities.”
Though EagleWoman is transferring from America, she does not believe that being relatively new to Canada will be an issue. She added that environmental and indigenous law are similar on both sides of the border.
“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations coming out are very common issues with people that are both in the United States and in Canada who are indigenous,” said EagleWoman in a Jan. 13, 2016 interview with CBC News. “So there’s a real commonality there, and the land doesn’t know political boundaries.”
Eaglewoman said that she hopes that the university will grow and continue to be a progressive and forward-thinking institution.
“I hope to move the law school from the start-up phase to taking its place as a distinguished law school, along with the other Ontario and national law schools,” said EagleWoman in the same CBC News interview.