THE ADVOCATE 497
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
recognized the continuance of Indigenous laws and customs as the “golden
thread” of the common law.3 This recognition is empowering for Indigenous
communities and has the potential to benefit all Canadians, but it requires
implementation and efforts from all of us to do shared work in considering
how to move forward. Much of Ardith’s practice involved working with different
Indigenous Nations to find ways to rearticulate Indigenous laws and
legal orders into a modern legal and political context. This work evolved
into finding ways to incorporate Indigenous laws and ways of problem solving
into broader alternative dispute resolution processes.
Ardith has an infectious quality of loving and creativity, collaborating
with colleagues to educate about Indigenous laws in ways that can shift patterns
of thought, individually and collectively. She curated a project called
Testify: A Project of the Indigenous Laws + Arts Collective that pairs artists
and legal theorists to create an opportunity for dialogue about Indigenous
laws and opportunities for their dynamic expression as part of Canadian
society and Canada’s legal landscape. Ardith was paired with renowned
artist Corrine Hunt, who created a sculpture that was generously donated
to Vancouver Island University. Ardith’s paper, “We Are Our Laws Walking:
The Light Shining Through”,4 calls upon the imperative of hope embodied
in Indigenous legal traditions to repair and weave Canadian society back to
wholeness. Testify has exhibited in Vancouver, Vancouver Island University,
Osgoode Hall Law School, Windsor Law School, McGill University,
Chippewas of the Thames, the Law Society of Ontario and the University of
Victoria.
Ardith dedicated a considerable portion of her career to public legal education,
increasing lawyers’ professional development, competency and
capacity, and to working within legal organizations to achieve these shared
goals. While acting as co-chair of the Law Society of British Columbia’s Truth
and Reconciliation Advisory Committee, appointed by the benchers, Ardith
produced the video “But I Was Wearing a Suit” to raise awareness of bias and
systemic discrimination in the legal profession towards Indigenous lawyers.5
Some of the major litigation she participated in focused on Aboriginal
title, Aboriginal rights and treaty rights, including appearing as one of the
lead counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Morris.6 This was
a constitutional case that affirmed the right of the descendants of those who
signed a pre-Confederation treaty in British Columbia to continue to hunt
at night with the aid of lights in accordance with their laws. She was a senior
member of the litigation team that participated in an intervention before
the Supreme Court of Canada in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia,7
whose trajectory through the courts was made possible by the British Colum-