My name is Danielle Lussier, and I am Métis and mum to a Trio of Tiny Métis from Treaty 1 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis Nation.
A registered citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, I have been an uninvited visitor in Eastern Ontario for more than 20 years.
I hold a Licence en Droit, a Bachelor of Laws, a Master of Laws with Specialization in Women’s studies, and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Ottawa. Called to the bar of Ontario in 2009 following a research assistantship at the Supreme Court of Canada and clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada, I have previously served as advocate for legislation and law reform on behalf of the Canadian Bar Association, as a legal analyst for the Parliamentary Research and Information Service at the Library of Parliament, and as legal counsel to a federal administrative tribunal.
As an established beadwork artist, I am keenly interested in the relationship between law and beadwork, and beadwork as it relates to community building and wellness.
From 2018-2022, I served as the inaugural Indigenous Learner Advocate and Director of Indigenous and Community Engagement and as part-time professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). In this role, I taught upper-year seminars and a first-year thematic course in Indigenous Legal Traditions. I also established and stewarded the Faculty of Law’s community beading circle which created personalized academic regalia for Indigenous graduates and builds community practice grounded in love, honour, and law.
I now make my home on the shores of Lake Ontario, where I serve as Associate Vice-Principal, Indigenous Knowledges and Learning at the Royal Military College of Canada, as a cross-appointed professor at Queen’s Faculty of Law, and as Fellow of Queen’s Institute for Intergovernmental Relations. In each of these roles, I hope to build better learning spaces for Indigenous learners and - as always - lead with love.
My academic research considers the development of Indigenous legal pedagogies, the role decolonized methodologies can play in the revitalization of Indigenous legal orders, and pathways to reconciliation and decolonization of legal education and the legal profession.
I believe that beadwork presents possibilities for reimagining legal education and Indigenous legal professionalism through a lens of reciprocal, trust-based relationships between educators, Learners, and community.
I am also writing and reflecting on Indigenous feminisms, soundscapes of legal education, racism and colonialism in post-secondary education, anti-colonial approaches to academic knowledge production, and mental health and wellness in the legal profession.
In my spare time, I engage in decolonial homeschooling of my three children. I also serve as co-chair of the Indigenous Advisory Group of the Law Society Ontario. You can follow me on Twitter @daniellelussier.
My ensign was designed by Mary McPherson, an Ojibwa artist and member of Couchiching First Nation who grew up in Thunder Bay.
In 2015, Mary was awarded the Aboriginal Arts and Stories Award and the Governor General’s History Award. Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Indigenous Art Award in 2017, she earned a degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Indigenous Learning from Lakehead University in 2019. Mary and I once accidentally attended a night baseball game on the way home from a trip to the art store where we had to google the rules and were largely confused about which team we were supposed to be cheering for (we chose the team that was losing. Badly.). Mary is currently studying Common Law at the University of Ottawa, and her art and mind will change the world.