During the Allard School of Law’s graduation procession, law student Stephen Mussell made national headlines by opting to wear the traditional regalia of the Plains Cree and Métis people over the standard cap and gown. UBC administration did allow Mussel to wear it, but maintained that their preference is students wear the assigned uniform.
Mussell hopes his decision to wear aboriginal regalia represents a contrast to the history of indigenous assimilation. “It’s important for us to keep our identity while in law school and our community,” said Mussell.
Despite being seated on the traditional, cultural and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, UBC has a history of poor treatment of aboriginal students. Aboriginal students in the past could be threatened with being enfranchised, having their Indian status revoked and losing the right to return to their reserve governments. For Stephen Mussell and other aboriginal students, the ability to coexist between a formal education system and aboriginal identity is relatively new to Canadian history.
However, administration maintains the policy of preferring all students to wear the assigned cap and gown.
Linc Kesler, senior advisor to president on aboriginal affairs, agrees with this policy but believes that exceptions can be made for aboriginal students, because expressions of aboriginal culture must be viewed through a historic context.
“Here is a student asserting his identity as an aboriginal student,” said Kesler. “Sixty years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible. Under that context people make those decisions… I understand [the university’s] concern, the ceremony is an academic tradition. When it comes to aboriginal students, I think it’s a different sort of situation.”
Mussell’s choice to express his aboriginal culture by wearing the traditional regalia to his graduation ceremony coincides with a larger push at UBC to promote indigenous students by increasing the aboriginal presence.
Under the present university administration, the law school hopes to increase the population of aboriginal students and faculty that enter their program and the numbers of lawyers they produce. To accomplish this, Dana-Lyn Mackenzie, Associate Director of the Indigenous Legal Studies program at Allard, helps in facilitating aboriginal-focused events and programs.
“The faculty has made a mandatory component to teach Aboriginal treaties and law so that all students have an understanding of aboriginal legal issues especially after what’s happening in British Columbia with so many unsettled land claims,” said Mackenzie. “If our students are going to work in B.C. I think it’s good to have that background.”
Allard Law School recently created a specialization in the field of aboriginal law in order to meet both the needs of aboriginal students and the growing demand for lawyers with specializations in this field.
“I think it’s a very fantastic thing and it highlights the importance of aboriginal law. It brings a level of that focus to the legal profession to the community,” said Mackenzie.
The new specialization in aboriginal law is just one year old, but professors and students hope that it will bring an increased importance and regard to aboriginal law throughout Canada.
Mussell graduated with this specialization and sees it as becoming an integral component in practicing law in British Columbia. “[Aboriginal] people are protecting their rights and it’s causing a lot of conflicts with governments,” said Mussell.
For Mussell, the efforts that are being made within Allard and the UBC Longhouse are positive in encouraging these kinds of expressions. “We have a lot of people who are constantly encouraging us to be indigenous and to take on that role,” said Mussell.
At the Longhouse in particular, culture is something that students are encouraged to celebrate.
Currently, the Longhouse puts on a variety of events, including aboriginal graduation and formal pow-wows where students are encouraged to embrace aboriginal history and culture. Kesler hopes that these developments will increase the dialogues on campus regarding aboriginal history and its place on UBC campus.
“For many students in educational institutions, Aboriginal students have been made to feel out of place,” said Kesler. “There are times where that has happened at UBC as well.”
This year the Longhouse Aboriginal Graduation celebrated their largest graduating class in history. Kesler hopes that this trend of increased participation and acknowledgement of aboriginal presence and importance continues in UBC.
“There is an opportunity for people to understand more about that,” said Kesler. “Just thinking about this helps people think about the larger terms of all those relationships and the first thing we want to see continue.”