Indigenous Alliance Week: Field Course in W̱SÁNEĆ Law with Robert Clifford

Event Description

Meet Professor Robert Clifford as he discusses his Field Course in WSÁNEĆ Law.

The W̱SÁNEĆ law field course is a semester long intensive that gives students an opportunity to learn, practice and engage with Indigenous legal traditions while living and participating in the W̱SÁNEĆ community on southern Vancouver Island. Students participating in the course will be provided accommodation for the duration of the semester, at no additional cost. 

The course incorporates significant land-based learning opportunities, as well as community projects in which students will directly contribute to the revitalization of W̱SÁNEĆ law in a number of different contexts. The course is offered as a partnership with the University of Victoria and the W̱SÁNEĆ community, and it will grant 15 experiential learning credits to Allard students. There are no pre-requisites for this course, though students should be committed to working and learning in respectful partnership with Indigenous communities. 

Speaker

Robert Clifford is WSÁNEĆ and a member of the Tsawout First Nation, his home community; he carries the name YELKATŦE, which was passed to him by his late grandfather, Earl Claxton Sr. His PhD research uses community participation methodologies to explore the ways WSÁNEĆ laws are generated by and reflect the values, philosophies, lands, and worldviews of the WSÁNEĆ people. The research is equally important in terms of practical application for the WSÁNEĆ community and as a contribution to theoretical understandings of what it means to responsibly engage WSÁNEĆ law, and Indigenous law more generally, within complex contemporary power structures and dynamics.