Native Law Centre adds Cree name

The centre will be known as Wiyasiwewin Mikiwahp Native Law Centre. The ceremony will also launch the NLC’s new strategic plan, part of a revisioning process which has reimagined the centre’s vision, mission and goals. 

 

NLC Academic Director Larry Chartrand, who led the revisioning committee, explained that the centre’s new name reflects a commitment to the next level of engagement with the Indigenous law community.  

 

“We felt it shows the NLC takes its mission of Indigenization seriously by engaging more fully and respectfully with the languages of the territory on which it is situated,” he said. 

 

The committee also felt that adding the Cree component to the original name honours the centre’s long history and global reputation as a leader in its field.

 

“The name of the Native Law Centre is significant, it represents the vision of [founder and former College of Law dean] Roger Carter and his belief in the intellectual capabilities and resiliency of Aboriginal students to succeed in law school,” said Sákéj Henderson, research fellow at the College of Law. “The centre has been gifted many honours by the Aboriginal elders, knowledge keepers and community, but none was more important than earning an Indigenous name.”

 

The NLC was founded in 1975 in response to the need for a multi-functional centre to specialize in legal education for Indigenous peoples, advance the interests of Indigenous peoples and communities in the development of Canada’s laws and legal system, and disseminate knowledge on Indigenous peoples and the law.