Advocacy-Matters-Fall-2021

What are some of the unique aspects of working
with and representing Indigenous clients?
Scott Robertson, Nahwegahbow Corbiere
Karey Brooks, JFK Law Corporation
SR: It is both an honour and a pleasure to work
with Indigenous clients. As a Mohawk and
member of Six Nations of the Grand River, the
importance of the work I do on behalf of Indigenous
peoples has a profound personal meaning.
For 27 years in Canada, it was against the
law for a lawyer to represent a First Nation on a
prospective claim. It is impossible to know how
First Nation peoples must have felt within those
27 years when they were unable to access legal
representation to protect the very essence
of their Indigenous laws and culture which are
embodied in their lands and waters.
Canada’s continued and pernicious attempts
to colonize Indigenous peoples has left a permanent
stain on the original treaty relationship
with Indigenous peoples, relationships which
were to last as long as the rivers flowed, the
grass grew and the sun shone. It is against these
historical and present-day injustices that Indigenous
peoples must now reconcile and seek justice
from the same Courts that, for more than a
century and a half, have denied their rights and
enforced government legislation and policies
which have been deemed to be “genocide”.
It is imperative that legal practitioners representing
Indigenous clients understand and respect
this colonial history and provide opportunities
to listen and educate themselves as per their
client’s particular interests and outcomes beyond
the common law adversarial approach to justice.
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CB: I speak from my perspective as a non-Indigenous
lawyer of settler descent.
Working with and representing Indigenous
clients requires humility, and the capacity to
acknowledge the limits of one’s own life experience.
I find I must also be mindful of the language
and culture gaps. As a Francophone, I often
find myself working with Indigenous clients
for whom English is also their second language.
As will be the case for any lawyer working in
a cross-cultural context, there is an increased