A Contemporary Approach to Indigenous Legal Issues

Enhancing the quality of scholarship on indigenous legal issues is an important goal for Métis scholar Danielle Nicole Rodych Lussier. Her master of law thesis focuses on crafting contemporary and culturally appropriate guidelines for studying legal issues that impact indigenous peoples.

To counter what she calls the historical "appropriation of voice" by non-indigenous scholars, Rodych Lussier, who begins a clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada this summer, advocates a more balanced approach that better recognizes indigenous and feminist perspectives, with particular emphasis on legal issues affecting indigenous women.

A graduate of the University of Ottawa's national law program, Rodych Lussier served as chief of the University of Ottawa Aboriginal Law Students Association and as a volunteer at the Women's Resource Centre, earning the 2007 Colonel Michel W. Drapeau Prize for academic achievement and community involvement. When her master’s degree is completed, Rodych Lussier says she’ll pursue a doctorate in the legal history of the Métis people, with the longterm goal of teaching law.