In this episode, Dean Michael Marin sits down with Patricia Bernard (LLB ’99), Wolastoqey woman, grandmother, lawyer, and Chief of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in northern New Brunswick. The pair discuss the challenges of connecting traditional law school material to indigenous issues/law (11:57); the governance structure of the First Nation (24:33); initiating the historic land claim as a UNB Law 2L and the 23-year long process that followed (36:33); negotiating the $145M settlement (52:55); the details of the settlement including the addition of land, and the distribution and investment of funds for the future of the First Nation (1:04:18); the impressive economic development of the Madawaska region (1:08:31); and Chief Bernard’s work to unite the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick (1:17:45).
