Aboriginal Law Students Celebrate Convocation

Aboriginal Law Students Celebrate Convocation

Monday, April 20, 2009 at 12:34

 

 

A new crop of Aboriginal lawyers will begin practicing soon.

 

Last night, 19 Aboriginal students from the University of Saskatchewan celebrated their graduation.

 

Trish Greyeyes from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation is one of those graduates.

 

She says Aboriginal lawyers really understand where Aboriginal clients are coming from because they’ve lived through much of the same circumstances.

 

Greyeyes says she decided to become a lawyer to give a voice to her community.

 

She will be practicing in Prince Albert.

 

According to a professor with the University of Saskatchewan’s Native Law Centre, while there are many more Aboriginal law students graduating today than a few decades ago, more work still needs to be done.

 

Ruth Thompson is the director of the Program of Legal Studies for Native People..

 

She says 19 graduates is a far cry from zero when the Native Law Centre opened in 1973.

 

Thompson says an estimated 1,000 students have gone through the program and graduated.

 

She says when the Native Law Centre opened, there were only about five practicing Aboriginal lawyers and five Aboriginal law students in the entire country.