Challenges in Gendering Indigenous Legal Education: Insights from Professors Teaching about Indigenous Laws

Abstract

AbstractIn the past decade there has been a distinct increase in literature on Indigenous laws. Calls to teach about Indigenous laws in postsecondary institutions in Canada have also intensified. This growth and these calls are significant, yet as with all fields of inquiry and teaching, there are also gaps. Gender continues to be under-addressed in work on Indigenous legal education. Drawing on interviews with twenty-three professors who teach about Indigenous law at postsecondary institutions in Canada, I examine the challenges in gendering Indigenous legal education. The professors all expressed that it is important to engage with gender when teaching, but the majority were experiencing significant challenges in actually doing so in practice. It is essential to understand how these challenges are entangled with gendered power dynamics and broader structural barriers, as they will continue to limit Indigenous legal education if not directly deconstructed and changed. Overall, the interviews signal the need for increased institutional support and change, more educational resources, eliminating discrimination, and ongoing discussion about gender and Indigenous law.