A Northern BC Indigenous lawyer and professor will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from UNBC during the 2021 virtual convocation.
Dr. Val Napoleon is a lawyer, professor and researcher who co-established the first-in-the-world Indigenous Law Degree program at the University of Victoria in 2018.
“I am from northern B.C. where I have spent so much of my working life,” said Dr. Napoleon, “This honorary degree is a recognition from the north and of northern people so it really touches my heart.”
The Indigenous Law Degree program provides students with two law degrees over four years an Indigenous law degree and a common law degree.
Additionally, in 2012 Dr.Napoleon established the Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU), a dedicated academic research centre housed in the Faculty of Law at UVic.
The unit works with Indigenous communities across the country to rebuild Indigenous laws and legal processes surrounding many issues including human rights and land and resources.
Dr. Napoleon is Cree from Saulteau First Nation and an adopted member of the Gitanyow (Gitxsan) nation and is grandmother to four.
“I am hoping that children, young adults, grandmothers, everyone – from every part of northern B.C. – are inspired to take up further education and that the rest of us and our institutions make this possible!” she added.
She will receive her Honorary Doctorate at the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences virtual ceremony on June 25th.