Val Napoleon Teaches at McGill’s Indigenous Legal Traditions Integration Week

Val Napoleon joined Hadley Friedland, Uvic Law alumus and visiting professor at the University of Alberta as part of a one-week intensive course to teach McGill law students about Indigenous Legal Traditions. The course taught the methodology developed by Val and Hadley, which is used by UVic Law’s Indigenous Law Research Unit. The Indigenous Law Research Unit, founded and led by Val, is the only dedicated Indigenous law research centre in the country. The Unit’s team works in collaboration with Indigenous communities to articulate their Indigenous laws, delivers workshops, and produces academic and public legal education materials on Indigenous law and critical Indigenous legal issues. Val and the Unit team are also committed to developing curriculum for Uvic law’s anticipated JID (common law/Indigenous laws) degree program.

 Val holds the Law Foundation Chair of Aboriginal Justice and Governance at the University of Victoria and is one of Canada's most influential Indigenous scholars. 

CBC News and APTN were on site to talk to Val and Hadley. A CBC News Montreal segment (begins at the 15:11 mark) aired on January 10th, as well as a news segment on APTN (begins at the 11:30 mark). CBC also published a piece online.