Canadian Lawyer

36 www.canadianlawyermag.com INDIGENOUS EDUCATION FEATURE the hard work of undertaking teaching about Indigenous issues, you have to some way in- form yourself about what's going on." A good example Wente cites of what hap- pens when issues are engaged out of context is the controversy over a December memo-writ- ing assignment for first-year law students at the University of Toronto, which involved a case that portrayed hypothetical Indigenous people in a stereotypical way. During the controversy, Wente — a 1998 U of T graduate herself, who notes there was a similar uproar at that time over residential school subject matter — says she saw people continuing to "use the thinking that they are equipped to answer those kinds of questions without any background knowledge and that they shouldn't have to ask themselves the hard questions," which she says is irrespon- sible whether you're a lawyer, law student or professor. "It's just a microcosm of the whole nation- al arrogance about being able to solve Ab- original peoples' problems without knowing anything about them," Wente says. "The ar- rogance of thinking that you can answer the question without knowing anything about the problem is the problem — and it's always been the problem. If we don't do the work, the same problems will keep arising again and again." For many advocates for Indigenous ed- ucation and reconciliation, legal education must overcome this arrogance and recognize the value of Indigenous peoples' past, pres- ent and future. One of the key first steps for law schools is to ensure they have Indigenous faculty and staff and that the environment is a welcoming one. Until there are Indigenous peoples at every level of the law school envi- ronment, there's "probably not going to be a required course or it's going to be a soft and fluffy offering," says Angelique EagleWoman, visiting professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota. "You can't expect to teach about intergen- erational trauma and not have a wide range of responses from people who are hearing it for the first time or it's their lived experience," says prior history in anti-racist education, they have no tools to understand what's being giv- en to them or to process their emotions," Bear, who is also a student representative with the Indigenous Bar Association, says. Maggie Wente, a partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP in Toronto, says one of the critical issues is the people introducing the subject matter to law students aren't neces- sarily competent to teach those subjects. She attributes this shortcoming to a stubborn be- lief that professors can't be told how to teach their classes. "I believe in academic freedom, but I also believe you have to be responsible and knowl- edgeable about the subject matter you're teaching — or you don't have any business teaching it," she says. "If you really want to do training in "intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism." In practice, law schools across the country have adopted various initiatives to address this, from unofficial undertakings such as increased exposure to Indigenous culture through practices such as traditional blanket exercises, interactions with Indigenous elders and taking part in camps to official changes such as the called-for mandatory courses and integration of relevant material across the curriculum. While these efforts should be applauded and encouraged, the question the legal community is grappling with now is how to effectively teach these things. "I think that class is absolutely needed; however, I would worry that, when you bring a group of law students through this with no "Respect, anti-racism and appreciation of other cultures as values — that has to guide these efforts if there's going to be meaningful change." Angelique EagleWoman, Mitchell Hamline School of Law

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