Update on Australian water law given to the International Indigenous Law Colloquium at UVic British Columbia

(L-R) Andrew Ambers, Dr Jeff Nicholls, Professor John Borrows, Dr Virginia Marshall and Professor Jeff Corntassel

RegNet research fellow, Dr Virginia Marshall, joined over 100 legal academics attending the International Indigenous Law Colloquium at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on 14 & 15 March. The colloquium, Upholding Indigenous International Laws with presentations from leading Canadian Aboriginal legal scholars.

Joining Dr Marshall on the panel dealing with issues around Indigenous Law and WaterBack was renowned Anishinaabe Professor of Law, John Borrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria BC and Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto, who is a leading authority on Canadian Indigenous law and constitutional law. Also on the panel was JD candidate Andrew Ambers, a Kwakwaka’wakw from the Namgis and Ma’amtagila whose research focuses on aquatic Aboriginal rights through Indigenous legal orders, Canadian law, and international law. 

The panel invited dialogue on how to uplift Indigenous water sovereignty and how strategies may be implemented to recognize Indigenous rights in aquatic spaces. Dr Marshall gave an overview on her work being undertaken in Australia over the last few years in public policy reform and as CI in relation to her ARC research on traditional medicines governance.

Among the legal scholars who also presented at the colloquium was Kent McNeil, Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, whose research focuses on the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. 

Participants to the colloquium were welcomed by Aboriginal Elders May Sam and Gerry Ambers from UVic’s First Peoples House, and by Marion R Buller CM, a retired First Nations jurist, practising lawyer and current chancellor of the University of Victoria.  Marion Buller served as the Chief Commissioner for Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls from 2016 to 2019.

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