Article: A Happy New Year…and a Quick Hello!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2026! We’re opening the season with a “meet the team” post featuring Siobhan Washburn and Casey Caines—WLGL legal counsel and former and current ReconciliACTION bloggers who are ready to bring some Indigenous-law energy into your feed this year.

Casey Caines & Siobhan Washburn

Siobhan is a member of the Otipemisiwak Métis Nation, and grew up in Treaty 6 just south of Edmonton. She loves to spend time with friends and family, to read, and to watch and rewatch shows and movies. She was part of the ReconciliACTION blog in her second year of law school, and is excited to be back now with the Lodge team! 

Casey is a Cree/Dene iskwew from Fort Nelson First Nation. Aside from her work with the Lodge she assists her Nation as a special governance coordinator, is a graduate student in the Faculty of Law, and can usually be found at various arenas across the city as she raises her three little hockey and lacrosse obsessed girls alongside her husband. Her return to the blog is a full circle moment having written previously as a second year law student and now returning as a real life lawyer. She is most excited about the opportunity to add to the work of making law and legal issue discussion more accessible! 

For those that know us and those who are getting to know us, we can’t wait to share alongside you this year. With posts upcoming on enforcement of Indigenous laws, wills and estates, and the Alberta separation referendum case Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta v Sylvestre we are jumping right into the stories, laws, and laughs that keep Indigenous legal orders alive and thriving and the timely legal issues that continue to impact us all. 

Until next time, 

Siobhan & Casey