Lakehead University’s Support of Anishinaabe Law Offers a Powerful Path to Truth and Reconciliation

Law Professor Larissa Speak Helps Bring Communities Together

Legal scholar Larissa Speak says she practices Anishinaabe law because it offers her healing and a respectful way to live in the world that honours the dignity of all.

A head-and-shoulders image of Larissa Speak wearing a collared shirt and a dark blazer

Professor Speak's skills as an educator have made her law school classes extremely popular. In 2025, she won a Contribution to Teaching Award—a student-nominated award that recognizes instructors who have demonstrated high levels of teaching performance at Lakehead University.

"I'm focused on promoting resurgence at the community level, which helps Lakehead University with its commitment to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Calls to Action," she says.

She adds that being an assistant professor at Lakehead University's Bora Laskin Faculty of Law and a member of Fort William First Nation has helped shape her perspective on resurgence and Truth and Reconciliation.

"We need to figure out respectful relationships between Indigenous and settler communities to live well together on Anishinaabe lands," Professor Speak says.

She's helping forge these relationships as a teacher, researcher, and co-director of the law school's Mino-waabandan Inaakonigewinan Indigenous Law and Justice Institute. She collaborates closely with co-director Robin Sutherland in her work with the institute.

The institute was established in 2021 in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Call to Action #50, which called for the creation of Indigenous law institutes across the country.

"The institute works with communities to revitalize Indigenous law and to increase access to justice for Indigenous Peoples," she says.

In a clearing surrounded by trees, Robin Sutherland constructs a sweat lodge out of tree saplings while several other people stand on the edge of the clearing

Professor Speak and Robin Sutherland are co-directors of the Mino-waabandan Inaakonigewinan Indigenous Law and Justice Institute, which means "seeing the law in a good way." Robin Sutherland is also the law school's Director of Indigenous Relations. Above, he helps first-year law students build a sweat lodge at the law school's first annual Law Camp.

It also offers important academic and outreach programming to law students, such as the annual Gaa-maada'ooniding Land-based Law Camp co-hosted with the School of Indigenous Learning (SOIL).

Gaa-maada'ooniding—Anishinaabe for "the place where we share together"—welcomes first-year students to the law school community and introduces them to Indigenous law through land-based practices, ceremonies, art, and sharing circles led by Indigenous knowledge holders.

A Leader in Indigenous and Aboriginal Law

Professor Speak's teaching, research, and advocacy are closely intertwined with the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law in other ways, too.

Larissa Speak, wearing a plaid jacket and sunglasses, stands in front of a moose hide that is being tanned

"We live in a very powerful place, and the Indigenous community wants to share that with people," Professor Speak says. "The sacred mountain—Anemki Wajiw—is the home of the Thunderbirds." Above, Professor Speak works on a moose hide after learning the practice from hide-tanners Jean Marshall and Shelby Gagnon.

She joined the law school as a contract lecturer in 2020, later becoming a professor, but she first stepped through its doors in 2013 as a student and a member of the law school's charter class.

"Studying at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law helped me better understand my Anishinaabe identity and the responsibilities that it carries," Professor Speak says.

"My family had become disconnected from Fort William First Nation, but law school helped me establish relationships in my community and got me really interested in learning about Indigenous law, especially Anishinaabe law."

A group of people stand in a circle holding a moose hide and toss a woman from the moose hide up into the air

When students arrive at the law school's Gaa-maada'ooniding Land-based Law Camp, Professor Speak says they "set up the tents and stations, bring the Elders food, and help clean up, because if you're going to learn something, you also need to give something back." Above, students help soften a moose hide by tossing Professor Speak into the air at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law's 2025 Law Camp.

Her exposure to these forms of laws wasn't accidental. One of the law school's three mandates is the teaching of Aboriginal and Indigenous law.

"Aboriginal law deals with how Canadian law applies to and affects Indigenous people, for example, treaty and hunting rights," Professor Speak explains. "Indigenous law refers to the law practiced by Indigenous people, which is separate and apart from Canadian law."

An Anishinaabe Worldview

Professor Speak specializes in the law practiced by Anishinaabe people and communities in northwestern Ontario. "It's an oral tradition based on protocols, relationships, and how to live and act in a good way so that you don't cause harm."

Fundamental to Anishinaabe law is a more inclusive version of personhood in which humans have no superiority over other living things—animals, plants, lakes, and trees are equal to humans and imbued with agency and spirit.

This conception of the world means that Anishinaabe law is often expressed through communal activities that happen on the land, such as respectful harvesting and hunting. For this reason, supporting Indigenous people being on the land is crucial to Professor Speak's teaching and research.

"I also try to broaden law students' understanding of what constitutes law through practices like deer and moosehide tanning," she says.

A back view of a group of people sitting and standing on rocks at the edge of a river

Last year, Professor Speak offered an upper-year elective course called "Anishinaabe Governance in Practice: Visiting and Learning at Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung." Students in Lakehead's Faculty of Law program and the Outdoor Recreation Parks and Tourism (ORPT) program went to the Manitou Mounds Historical Centre on Rainy River First Nations lands with ORPT Director Dr. Leigh Potvin. The course built on extracurricular trips to Manitou Mounds led by Robin Sutherland in previous academic years. "Robin established strong ties with Manitou Mounds and the local knowledge holders, setting us up for success. We visited a protected site with burial mounds, some of which were 8,000 years old, and the students were part of a ceremony to repatriate ancient remains," Professor Speak says. "They also learned Anishinaabe teachings about the stars and constellations." Above, as part of the course, Professor Speak and students look for "jumping name," also known as sturgeon, in the Rainy River.

In collaboration with Dr. Leigh Potvin, she has hosted two hide-tanning gatherings at Lakehead University, funded by a SSHRC SIG Community-Engaged Research Grant (CERG) and a Lakehead University Indigenous Research Capacity Development Grant. The gatherings were open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and anyone from the wider community interested in participating. These kinds of gatherings strengthen Anishinaabe law and teach non-Indigenous people about the places where they live.

We All Have a Part to Play in Truth and Reconciliation

Professor Speak says that many of the TRC's calls to action remain incomplete.

"There's been backsliding and a resistance to decolonization at the institutional level. That's why I'd like to see non-Indigenous people step into leadership roles to support this work, including commemorating the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30."

Two women and two men stand outside beneath a tent

Professor Speak says that non-Indigenous students often arrive at law camp feeling very nervous, but that they soon relax. "They eat so much food at law camp, which is how I know they're becoming comfortable," she says. "In sharing circles at the end of the three days, many students describe it as an amazing experience." Above, Knowledge Holders Jeordi Pierre, Marlene Pierre, Irene Linklater, and Ron Linklater at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law's 2026 Law Camp.

Professor Speak believes that the best way to begin engaging in Truth and Reconciliation is by attending Indigenous community events and getting to know people—whether it's a Powwow, an art exhibition, Lakehead University's annual Fall Harvest celebration, or other campus gatherings.

"Then think about specific calls to action you want to respond to, because this work is for all of us to do," she says.

How to Show Your Support on September 30:

Keywords: 
Professor Larissa Speak
Bora Laskin Faculty of Law
Indigenous law