Dr. Henderson was born to the Bear Clan of the Chicksaw Nation and the Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma. In 1974, he received a juris doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. During the constitutional process in Canada (1978–1993), Sa’ke’j served as a constitutional adviser for the Mi’kmaw Nation and the National Indian Brotherhood, Assembly of First Nations. He has continued to write about Aboriginal and Treaty rights and Treaty federalism in constitutional law. Sa’ke’j is a noted international human rights lawyer and authority on protecting Indigenous heritage, knowledge, and laws, and has served as a member of the Advisory Board to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He was one of the strategists, expert advisers and drafters of the United Nations Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Indigenous Heritage and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For his achievements, he received the Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel award in 2005, the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from Carleton University in 2007. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013.

Dr. Wilton Littlechild, Ph.D., is a Cree chief, residential school survivor, and lawyer who has worked both nationally and internationally including with the United Nations to advance Indigenous rights and Treaties. He was also a Commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Born in Alberta, Wilton Littlechild studied physical education at the University of Alberta and law at the University of New Mexico, where he continued his balance of academics and hockey. Chief Littlechild was a member of the 1977 Indigenous delegation to the United Nations (UN), and worked on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He organized within the UN to increase Indigenous input in the economic and social issues the UN tackles. In the 1980s, he worked on the lawsuit to prevent patriation of the Canadian Constitution until the Aboriginal and Treaty Rights were protected and, in more recent years, has been a regional and International Chief on Treaties No. 6, 7, 8. Chief.

Littlechild has been a Member of Parliament, Vice-President of the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, North American representative to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and a chairperson for the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform. He has been inducted into seven Sports Halls of Fame. He has been awarded the Order of Canada and in 1993, the Canadian government awarded Chief Littlechild the Canada 125 Medal. He is a 2015 Laureate of the Indspire Awards and was recently honoured with the Alberta Award of Excellence.

Dr. Borrows, B.A., M.A., J.D., LL.M. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, Law Society of Ontario, York University, Queen’s University, Simon Fraser University). D.H.L. (Hons., Toronto) F.R.S.C., O.C., is Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria Law School. 

His publications include, Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2002), Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (Canadian Law and Society Best Book Award 2011), Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide (2010), Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism (Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2016), The Right Relationship (with Michael Coyle, ed.), Resurgence and Reconciliation (with Michael Asch, Jim Tully, eds.), Law’s Indigenous Ethics (NAISA best subsequent book), all from the University of Toronto Press. He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts, the 2020 Governor General’s Innovation Award, and the 2021 Canadian Bar Association President’s Award winner.  He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020. John is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.

Sarah Morales (Su-taxwiye), JD (UVic), LLM (University of Arizona), PhD (UVic), PostDoc (Illinois) is Coast Salish and a member of Cowichan Tribes. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law, where she teaches torts, transsystemic torts, Coast Salish law and languages, legal research and writing and field schools.

Dr. Morales’ research centres on Indigenous legal traditions, specifically the traditions of the Coast Salish people, Aboriginal law and human rights. She has been active with Indigenous nations and NGOs across Canada in nation building, inherent rights recognition, and international human rights law.

Darcy Lindberg is mixed-rooted Plains Cree, with his family coming from Maskwâcîs (Samson Cree Nation) in Alberta and the Battleford-area in Saskatchewan. He holds a BA from the University of Alberta, and a JD, LLM and PhD from the University of Victoria. He has taught courses at the University of Alberta on constitutional law, Indigenous legal traditions, treaties, and Indigenous environmental legal orders.

Dr. Lindberg was called to the British Columbia and Yukon bars in 2014 and practiced in the Yukon Territory with Davis LLP.  His research focuses on Nêhiyaw law, ecological governance through Indigenous legal orders, gender and Indigenous ceremonies, comparative approaches in Nêhiyaw and Canadian constitutionalism, and Indigenous treaty making.

Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark is an assistant professor in Political Science at the University of Victoria. She is Ojibwe from Turtle Mountain and has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include Aboriginal and Treaty rights and Indigenous politics in the United States and Canada. She is the co-editor of Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories with Jill Doerfler and Niigaanwewidam Sinclair and is the co-author of the third edition of American Indian Politics and the American Political System with Dr. David E. Wilkins.

Dr. Stark’s research background includes collaborative work with Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. She was awarded a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for her project titled “Sakimay First Nation Governance,” in collaboration with John Borrows which involves students, Anishinaabe Elders, and Sakimay First Nation community members, and aims to advance the development and resurgence of Anishinaabe political structures and institutions that are informed and shaped by Anishinaabe philosophies, values, and teachings.

Stephen Augustine is the Executive Director of the Marshall Institute and the former Associate Vice President, Indigenous Affairs and Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University. From 1996 until January 2013, he was the Curator of Ethnology for Eastern Maritimes, Ethnology Services Division at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC), in the National Capital Region.

In 2022, Stephen was appointed to the Order of Canada, C.M., for advancing Mi’kmaq studies, and sharing his scholarly expertise and traditional knowledge with private and public organizations across Canada

Stephen holds a M.A. in Canadian Studies from Carleton University (1999) focussing on traditional knowledge curriculum development in the education system and he obtained a B.A. in Anthropology and Political Science from St Thomas University. In 2022, Stephen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New Brunswick, recognising his achievements in academia through advancing the acknowledgement of Indigenous ways of knowing and teaching, and fostering an environment for collaboration between organizations.

Stephen has shared his expertise in research and traditional knowledge with many organizations, including government departments, the Assembly of First Nations, and various Indigenous communities across Canada. He has organized cross-cultural and oral history workshops and made presentations to a wide variety of institutions including the United Nations, government, many universities (Canada, US, Spain, France), museums, UNESCO and The Vatican. His book on the CMC collections (Mi’kmaq & Maliseet Cultural Ancestral Material, Mercury Series, CMC, 2005) has proven a valuable resource for academic researchers and educators alike. In 2009, Elder Stephen Augustine received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for his outstanding work towards the recognition and teaching of First Nations culture, heritage and spirituality.

Chief Augustine has been accredited as an expert witness in various court cases involving Aboriginal access to resources in the Maritimes, being recognized for his knowledge both of oral history and ethno-history, and of the treaties in the region. He has been Elder Advisor to the Federal Court of Canada Judges, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Human Rights Commission of Canada. In his role as a Hereditary Chief on the Mi’kmaq Grand Council and by Elders’ training since an early age, Mr. Augustine has a thorough command of traditional practices, his language and the history of his people.