The Wahkohtowin Intensive 2026: Wahkohtowin in Action

Wahkohtowin Intensive Community Instructors, WLGL Instructors and Students at Susa Creek, photo by Ken McDonald

By Casey Caines, Hero Laird & Megan Reti

What can tanning moose hide teach us about law? A few days ago, we had the incredible opportunity to spend time with Aseniwuche Winewak Nation (AWN) families at Susa Creek. Each year that we have the chance to visit for the University of Alberta Faculty of Law course, "Wahkohtowin Intensive: Miyo-wîchêtowin Principles and Practices," we leave with full hearts, full minds, sore "moose guns" and a renewed spirit. We are reminded how much there is to learn about living and practising the Cree laws of miyo-wîchêtowin and wahkohtowin. Fortunately, the students and WLGL teaching team get to learn wahkohtowin - the truth claim that we all live in relation and are interdependent, through wahkohtowin. All the relationships and activities that come together through moose hide tanning, with the incredible community instructors from AWN leading with welcoming kindness and patience that makes this course possible, teach us how we can uphold these laws even as we learn them. From scraping the hide to berry picking, tasting moose meat at lunch, warming cold hands with hot tea, walking up and down the paths, and the conversation and visiting that happens in a thousand moments, we experience Cree law. 

For some law students whose primary education is rooted in a more Western legal tradition, the explicit and implicit practice of law in these ways can feel more challenging to access. One of the beautiful things about this course is the ways in which it reminds people of the expansiveness of law. Even in western legal traditions, it is not limited to the formal, such as a court house or a jail. Rather, a core aspect of all law is the way in which all people govern themselves through the choices we make every day. This deep, sometimes obscured part of legal systems - that we all have a role to play - shines through in the integration of law and life in the community of Susa Creek. Even if we are sweaty, hungry or grumpy at moments, embarrassed at a mistake or unsure of a relationship, how each of us contributes becomes clear. We are invited to reflect on mistakes and try again, because we are needed. Someone brings food, and we learn through that to notice the wellbeing of others and offer food. This is legal work, and there is work to be done. 

Ten years ago, the late AWN Elder Adelaide McDonald decided it was time to teach law students about Cree law. That is the reason this course came to be (see the story in this short video). We are so grateful, how can we ever express it? Whether guest or community member, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, there is a role for us to learn and uphold Cree laws. In this part of the world, that means understanding wahkohtowin. We are all related. Not in a romanticized way, but as the inevitable truth. The beauty of this course, of AWN, of wahkohtowin, gives us all hope and tools to move forward. We know, deeply, that there is work to be done.