IBA 2025: “Rewriting the Rules: Indigenous-Led Legal Reform and Resistance”

By Casey Caines, Hero Laird, and Siobhan Washburn

This October, the Wahkohtowin Law and Governance Lodge’s legal team attended the 37th Annual Indigenous Bar Association Conference, “Rewriting the Rules: Indigenous-Led Legal Reform and Resistance,” in Vancouver, on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. 

The Indigenous Bar Association is a national non-profit association of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit persons in Canada trained in the field of law. This conference provides space for Indigenous legal professionals and allies across Canada to share ideas about Indigenous and Aboriginal law as well as strengthen relationships.

We reconnected with old friends, met new ones, and will continue to draw on the sessions we learned from in our work. For example, in the “90 Minute Trust/Estates Lawyer” session, panelist Jodi Hancheroff shared that estate intentions can be noted in many ways, such as unwritten options to accord with a person's Indigenous legal order. Similarly, in the “Indigenous Citizenship Governance & Taxation” session, panelists Promise Holmes Skinner and Chelsea Cameron advocated for space for resource distributions akin to tax, to be taken on by Bands. The moderator, Drew LaFond, shared that one way to view this is through the Cree concept tipahikêwin, articulated as contributing back to fellow members or kin. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs featuring a deeper dive into Enforcement of Indigenous laws and other topics! 

The Wahkohtowin team is grateful to have had the chance to learn and reflect on what was shared. The annual IBA conference is a powerful witness to the ways we each bring our small thread to the greater tapestry that we are weaving together. As we return to our homefires we are inspired by our peers and reaffirm our own commitment to continue the weaving in our own small, but important, ways.