The Indigenous intercultural course is an educational course that has been designed to help British Columbia lawyers increase their Indigenous cultural awareness and understanding. It provides information regarding the colonization of BC and Canada, the impacts of colonization and colonial laws and policies on Indigenous peoples. Topics include:
- Indigenous laws and legal traditions
- the evolution of the relationship between the Crown and Indigenous peoples
- policies and laws to eliminate the rights, governments, cultures, resources, lands, languages and institutions of Indigenous peoples, including residential schools
- social, political and economic success, resilience and reconciliation.
The course responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, in particular #27 which calls upon Canadian law societies to ensure all lawyers have received appropriate cultural competency training. The Law Society worked to develop BC-specific content for BC lawyers. Our Truth and Reconciliation Advisory Committee, as well as Indigenous lawyers and legal experts, were consulted and involved in the development of this content.