She is currently an expert member to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Brenda Gunn has been named the first-ever appointee to the Phil Fontaine Professorship in Indigenous Law and Economic Reconciliation established by the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law.
The appointment took effect on July 1. Gunn was recommended for the professorship after an internal search and a collegial roundtable with the hiring committee. According to the university, the professorship’s mandate aligned with Gunn’s contributions to the law faculty, her community-centered work, and her leadership in relation to scholarship and engagement involving the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
A Red River Métis woman whose family hails from north of Winnipeg, Gunn is an expert member representing Western European and Other States to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). She first commenced with the University of Manitoba’s law faculty in 2009.
In 2011, she authored “Understanding and Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: An Introductory Handbook,” which has been used as a primary resource on the UN Declaration in Canada. She also brought together global Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts, researchers, policy makers, and advocates at “Kiskinohamatowin: An International Academic Forum on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” The 2019 Robson Hall event highlighted research that could be applied by Indigenous peoples and institutions to implement UNDRIP further.
Gunn was the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s research director, working from the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus. She resumed teaching at the university during last year’s winter term, leading the upper-year law course “Advocating for the rights of Indigenous peoples in International law.”
She began her three-year term as UNPFII expert member this year. In April, she attended the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City with Manitoba law students.
The Phil Fontaine Professorship will build on Gunn’s UNPFII work. She will conduct research to flag and eliminate legal barriers to Indigenous peoples’ full participation in the economy on its terms.
“Reconciliation requires identifying and removing the colonial and racist foundations of Canada; economic reconciliation begins with recognizing that Indigenous peoples have always engaged in dynamic and diverse economies. Research in economic reconciliation is best advanced by locating it within the context of self-determination and revitalizing Indigenous laws,” she said in a statement.
Gunn added that her research would be “collaborative (Indigenous led and Indigenous community engaged); interdisciplinary (business, human rights, Indigenous studies, political studies and law); and practical (local impacts with international implications).”
“The Faculty of Law is deeply grateful for the forward-thinking community of partners that supports this Professorship. They understand the importance of fuelling research, and honour Phil Fontaine’s legacy and the work he has done for Indigenous economic reconciliation. The Faculty is pleased to advance this important area of legal scholarship. We have every confidence in Professor Gunn’s abilities to accomplish great work in this capacity,” said Richard Jochelson, dean of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law.
Phil Fontaine, from whom the professorship took its name, was a former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations who was the Royal Bank of Canada’s special advisor for 15 years. He had been key to the recognition of the harms of residential schools and helped secure the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.
The invocation of his name in the professorship was indicative of the university’s commitment to progressing meaningful reconciliation founded in Indigenous legal traditions, leadership, and economic empowerment, the University of Manitoba said.
