VICTORIA – B.C. government officials have announced a $13 million contribution to build the National Centre for Indigenous Laws at the University of Victoria (UVic).
The $27.1-million project is also being funded by the federal government ($9.1 million) and the Law Foundation of BC ($5 million).
“When the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act passed unanimously in the B.C. legislature in 2019, we voted for systemic change,” said Melanie Mark, minister of advanced education, skills and training, in a statement. “The new National Centre for Indigenous Laws will be a place where the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada will be recognized and upheld. This new space is being designed to allow for the unique ways in which Indigenous laws have been and are being practised — incorporating ceremony and oral traditions — all within a culturally relevant space and expected to meet LEED Gold standards. This is a historic step toward reconciliation and will be a positive legacy for social, economic and environmental justice.”
The facility will house the first-ever joint degree in Indigenous legal orders and Canadian common law (JD/JID), which launched at UVic in 2018, as well as the Indigenous Law Research Unit. The 2,440-square-metre addition to the Anne and Murray Fraser (Law) Building is designed to recognize and honour the law school’s location and long-standing relationship with the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples on whose territory the university sits.
The project will use Coast Salish designs, signs, public art and materials such as B.C. wood, cedar weaving and natural light.
“Supporting the University of Victoria’s world-leading Indigenous law centre and programming is another example of how B.C. continues to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in a meaningful way,” said Scott Fraser, minister of indigenous relations and reconciliation. “Education is key to reconciliation. Through this knowledge, we must come to understand the past and can work together to support healing to make a real difference in the lives of Indigenous families and everyone in B.C.”
The facility will feature high-tech digital infrastructure to help students to connect with their hometowns and also enable the exchange of legal traditions.
It will also allow the school to host conferences, public workshops, research and partnerships for faculty, students and visitors. The new facility will include public lecture theatres, faculty and staff offices, classrooms, meeting space, an Elders’ room and spaces for gathering, ceremonies and sharing of histories and knowledge.
“The National Centre for Indigenous Laws will be home to the first Indigenous law program in the world to combine the intensive study of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous law, and will help Canada build a new nation-to-nation relationship based on the recognition – and renaissance – of Indigenous legal traditions,” said Jamie Cassels, president and vice-chancellor of UVic. “We are grateful to the provincial and federal governments that helped establish this unique Indigenous law program at UVic and to the Law Foundation of BC for its generous donations today.”
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