Indigenous Law Bulletin
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by Shelley Wright[1]
In September 2001 a unique opportunity in legal education opened its doors just south of the Arctic Circle in Nunavut, Canada. The Akitsiraq Law School is a four year degree program offering fourteen Inuit students the chance to obtain a Bachelor of Laws degree (‘LLB’) while remaining in or near their own communities. The University of Victoria in British Columbia is offering the degree program jointly with Nunavut Arctic College and the Akitsiraq Law School Society.
The students, once they complete their studies, will have mastered a full complement of law subjects similar to their fellow students in southern Canada. In addition, they will also have done a compulsory program in language training in the local Indigenous language, Inuktitut, which should allow them to better represent clients and assist in the drafting and interpretation of laws appropriate in an Inuit context. All this while maintaining their ties to their families and communities in Nunavut. It is unlike any other law program in Canada and might well provide a model for Indigenous legal education in other places, including Australia.[2]
‘Nunavut’ means ‘our land’ in Inuktitut. About 85 percent of the population are Inuit, the Indigenous people of the Arctic region including central and eastern Canada, Greenland, Alaska and part of Siberia. Nunavut was created as a new territory of Canada in April 1999 from the top half of the existing Northwest Territories (capital Yellowknife). The territory is based on the 1993 Nunavut Land Claim Agreement between the Inuit and the Canadian Government. The new territorial capital was placed in Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay) on the southern end of Baffin Island. Nunavut covers about one fifth of the land and sea of Canada, including most of the land above the tree line and the Arctic islands stretching to the North Pole.
The population is about 28,000 spread out over 25 incorporated communities, the city of Iqaluit and 24 towns and hamlets, and a few smaller outpost camps. The economy is based on cash income from employment in the public sector, services, construction, mining, fishing, tourism, arts and crafts, and a relatively low level of government welfare assistance. A significant segment of the non-cash economy is subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering which also retains an important cultural role.[3]
Most professional and senior management positions remain, however, in the hands of non-Inuit. One of the purposes of the Akitsiraq Law School is to redress this imbalance, at least in the legal and public service professions. Under the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, ‘Inuit participation in government employment in the Nunavut Settlement Area’ must be brought up to ‘a representative level’.[4] Plans to implement this objective are to be reviewed every five years beginning in 2004.[5]
The name ‘Akitsiraq’ comes from a sacred, secret place near Cape Dorset on the southern tip of Baffin Island, where the Inuit Great Council decided the most difficult cases in accordance with traditional Inuit justice. These meetings of traditional justice continued until as recently as 1924.[6] A circle of massive stones is said to mark the place. The word itself means ‘to strike out disharmony/wrong-doing; to render justice’.[7] The law school was named ‘in remembrance of such places of power within the Inuit landscape and culture’.[8]
The Akitsiraq Law School Society was established in 1999 to plan for the creation of a fully-fledged law degree program to be taught in Iqaluit. It continues to operate as the institutional nonprofit organisation administering the law school. It consists of Inuit community members, teachers and legal professionals based in Nunavut. The Law School Society continues to play a crucial role in ensuring that the law school ‘reflects the unique realities of the north and the priorities of the Inuit’.[9] The Northern Director (based in Iqaluit), Ms Kelly Gallagher-MacKay, acts as executive officer of the Society’s board and works with them in the management of the program. The governments of Nunavut and Canada provide most of the funding.
The University of Victoria agreed to offer the course of studies as part of its LLB program specially tailored for Inuit students. An LLB program in Canada is normally taught as a three year postgraduate degree. The Akitsiraq Law School offers the same number of course credits and requirements taught over four years. The Southern Director (based in Victoria), Ms Kim Hart-Wensley, develops the curriculum (in consultation with others) and recruits suitable staff to teach in the law school. Both Directors also teach. They work together (usually by long distance) in the day to day administration of the program under the direction of the Akitsiraq Law School Society and the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law. Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit provides the classroom and other educational facilities as well as teaching and counselling support. It is the third important partner in the administration of the law school.
Law professors are recruited to spend time in Iqaluit teaching. This is not a ‘distance education program’ in the usual sense. Teachers must be physically present in Iqaluit to teach in the program. Although, the University of Victoria Law Library provides valuable distance research facilities through a website, and by telephone, email and fax communication with a dedicated Akitsiraq librarian.
In addition to the funding necessary to establish and staff the law school most of the fourteen students are also sponsored by government and Inuit organisations. These sponsorship agreements ensure that students have a sufficient income to live on while completing the program. In addition to studying students must also do work placements with the sponsors during non-teaching periods and are committed to working for a sponsor for at least two years after they have completed their studies.
The first courses taught to the students in the Fall semester of 2001 (from September to December) were Property Law, Legal Process and Legal Research and Writing. The decision to begin with Property Law reflects the importance attached to land and ownership issues in Nunavut, and the desire to begin with a challenging course from an academic point of view, but one that would not have the social or personal impact that might accompany Criminal Law or even Torts.
The Spring semester (2002) was divided into two parts given the demands of finding teachers for the program. In January and February the students took Intentional Torts and more Legal Process. The courses in Legal Research and Writing, and Legal Process were continued from January through to the May-July Summer semester when the students also took Criminal Law and Procedure. Law, Legislation and Policy was also taught during the students’ first year.
The second half of traditional ‘first year’ or core subjects began in the Fall semester of 2002 (beginning in September) with the remainder of Torts, Constitutional Law, Contracts (Spring semester) and more Legal Research and Writing. In addition, students will also begin upper year courses in Family Law, Remedies and Aboriginal Law. During the final two years, from Fall 2003 to the Summer of 2005, the students will continue with a full range of subjects from International Law to commercial law subjects. There are plans to allow students the opportunity to do one semester at the University of Victoria, although this may not be possible for everyone.
Compulsory language training in Inuktitut, and the incorporation of Inuit custom and traditional law is also an important part of the Akitsiraq Law School. This is proving to be a real challenge for students and instructors alike. Euro-Canadian and Inuit laws are very different in their approach and background:
From this perspective it can be understood why Susan Enuaraq [one of the students in the Akitsiraq Program] . . . begins her paper on ‘Traditional Justice among the Inuit’ (1995) with an account of the famous creation myth of the woman who did not want to get a husband and then married a dog. For Susan a discussion of traditional law begins with a discussion of the origin of the cosmic order of the world. This woman became the ancestress of different peoples as well as the mother of sea mammals, illustrating that the relations between human beings on one side, and between human beings and game on the other, cannot be separated from each other. Looking for a social order that only aims for social control and does not involve the relationship to game and the spirits, would make no sense to Inuit before the introduction of Christianity.[10]
Many of the students themselves are already experienced and committed community leaders in Nunavut. Some of them were instrumental in the establishment of the law school while others come from backgrounds in government service, teaching, science, small business, Inuit organisations and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (‘RCMP’). All but two of the students are women and most are parents of school-age children. Balancing law school with family and community responsibilities has been a major challenge for many of the students.
Madeleine Redfern, formerly the Executive Director of Nunavut Tourism, ‘says she enrolled in the law school because she believes her fellow Inuit aren’t well served by mainstream institutions’.[11] Aaju Peter, a well-known artist and designer who is from Greenland but has lived in Canada for 20 years, is interested in international law as well as southern and Inuit concepts of law:
In order to change anything, we have to understand the Canadian laws. I could, without a degree and just being a mother of five, scream like crazy and get nowhere. This degree will help me get my point across.[12]
For Henry Coman
. . . there is a serious need for Inuit lawyers to help the people of Nunavut in various aspects of the law . . . I have already been serving the people of Nunavut by enforcing the laws as a member of the RCMP, but I feel that earning a law degree would give me a tool in which to further aid my fellow citizens of Nunavut.[13]
Sandra Omik is the former Chair of Maligarnit Qimirrujiit or the Nunavut Law Reform Commission. She was named by MacLean’s Magazine (the Canadian equivalent of Time or The Bulletin) in their cover story of September 9, 2002 as one of Canada’s ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’. In her interview she says, ‘Lots of Inuit don’t know their rights. That’s why I want to be a lawyer, to help them.’[14]
Obstacles to starting and administering Akitsiraq have been formidable. The University of Victoria is the most distant geographically from Iqaluit of any law school in Canada. But it is also recognised as one of the best law teaching faculties in the country. In particular, it is
. . . known for its student-centered and skills-based approach to legal education, its commitment to social justice and diversity in the legal profession, and the excellence of its students and faculty. It is the only law school in the country with a co-op program that integrates education and work experience.[15]
The two founding Directors, Northern Director, Mr Andrejs Berzins and Southern Director, Professor Donald Galloway, faced major challenges in finding funding for the program (including student sponsorship), facilities and infrastructure, admissions, curriculum development and recruitment. Because this is a pioneer project there were no precedents to work from. Everything had to be developed ‘from scratch’. These tasks were complicated by the difficulties in working in a remote and geographically isolated community. Cultural, community and academic expectations did not always coincide. The Law School represents an ongoing dialogue between northern and southern expectations as to what a law degree should provide and whom it ought to benefit.[16]
The Akitsiraq program also remains controversial because of the diversity of needs within Nunavut and the problem of setting priorities. Concerns have been raised about the need to provide significant resources, including increased financial assistance, to students in other programs. Ms Rebecca Williams, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Nunavut, specifically cited the nursing program offered through Nunavut Arctic College as a program in need of such assistance.[17]
There have been criticisms levelled at the Law School from commentators in southern Canada who seem to find the creation of a program especially for Inuit students ‘offensive’ or even racially discriminatory.[18] The logic of these criticisms seems to miss the point of meeting the needs of Inuit students in their own communities, and are obviously ignorant of the legal obligations owed by the governments of Nunavut and Canada to the people of the north.[19]
But, as another one of the students, Sandra Inutiq, has said,
The assimilation practices of the past are gone. This is going to set a precedent for other fields of study. Conservative lawyers would say, no, you can’t have a law program outside a university. But we argued that we have a right to be educated, and we have these connections to our community and families. Finally, it’s happening.[20]
Shelley Wright is a senior lecturer within the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney. She will be the Northern Director of the Akitsiraq Law Program from 1 January 2003 and will be based in Iqualuit.
[1] My thanks to Kelly Gallagher-MacKay, Kim Hart-Wensley, Donald Galloway and Andrejs Berzins for looking over this article and making suggestions.
[2] For a thorough discussion of the background to the formation of the Akitsiraq Law Program see Kelly Gallagher-McKay, ‘Affirmative action and self-government: The case for legal education in Nunavut’ (1999) 14(2) Canadian Journal of Law and Society 1.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Agreement between the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Area and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada (1993), Art 23.2.1.
[5] Ibid Art 23.7.1.
[6] See Norman Hellendy, (with Osuitok Ipeelee, Annie Manning, Pauta Saila and Pitaloosie Saila) ‘The last known traditional Inuit trial on Southwest Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic’, Background Paper No 2 for ‘Places of power and objects of veneration in the Canadian Arctic’ (Paper presented at the World Archaeological Congress III, Ottawa, 1994).
[7] ‘Akitsiraqvik: The naming of the Akitsiraq Law School’ Akitsiraq News (Nunavut) Summer 2001, 9.
[8] Tavia Grant, ‘An arctic law school tailored to native needs’, Christian Science Monitor, 29 January 2002, <www.csmonitor.com/2002/0129/p14s01-lehl.htm>.
[9] Canadian Bar Association, National Aboriginal Law Section, ‘Nunavut’s Akitsiraq Law School’, Aboriginal Writes, November 2001, 1.
[10] Jarich Oosten, Frédéric Laugrand and Wim Rasing (with Mariano Aupilaarjuk, Marie Tulimaaq, Akisu Joamie, Emile Imaruittuq and Lucassie Nutaraaluk) ‘Introduction: Tirigusuusiit, Piqujait and Maligait: Inuit perspectives on traditional law’ in Interviewing Inuit Elders (Volume 2): Perspectives on Traditional Law (1999) 3.
[11] Grant, above n 8.
[12] Ibid.
[13] As quoted in Akitsiraq News, above n 7, 7.
[14] ‘Sandra Omik: Northern Star’, MacLean’s Magazine (Canada) 9 September 2002, <http://www.macleans.ca/> .
[15] Canadian Bar Association, above n 9, 1.
[16] See Gallagher-MacKay, above n 2.
[17] ‘Nunavut law school funding unfair, MLA says’, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada) 3 May 2002 <http://north.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=ma3lawschool>; Nunavut, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 20 June 2002 (Rebecca Williams, MLA) <www.assembly.nu.ca/english/hansard/final5/010316.html>.
[18] See for example, the Editorial, Ottawa Citizen (Canada) 31 August 2001, <www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/editorials/>.
[19] See Andrejs Berzins, ‘Nunavut law program reflects Inuit needs’ and Donald Galloway, ‘High standards’ Ottawa Citizen, 10 September 2001, A11, responding specifically to the editorial comment cited above. See also Gallagher-MacKay, above n 2.
[20] As quoted in William Johnson, ’Pit Bull’, ‘Condemned and redeemed – the new world of Inuit law’ Toronto Globe and Mail, 1 September 2001, <www.globeandmail.com/>.
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2002/51.html