Paul Chartrand will become Director of Aboriginal Governance at The University of Winnipeg
WINNIPEG, MB – Renowned Aboriginal scholar Paul Chartrand will become Director of Aboriginal Governance at The University of Winnipeg, leading one of Canada’s most comprehensive Aboriginal academic programs, effective July 2008.
“We are giving birth to a new kind of academic program, one that bridges intellectual traditions and heritages,” said Paul Chartrand, Professor of Law, former commissioner on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and incoming Director of Aboriginal Governance at The University of Winnipeg. “We go forward with a sense of humility and anticipation.”
Chartrand will oversee the new Masters of Arts degree in Aboriginal Governance, a first for Manitoba, as well as the ongoing Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal Governance (offered as a joint program with Red River College).
“The Masters degree affords us a very unique opportunity to participate in change of the right kind at the university level. That is a very rare opportunity, to bring together law, history, the governance of Indigenous people. How do we incorporate the teachings of Elders? What are the values of Indigenous peoples today? How shall we conduct research in Indigenous communities? These are subjects we will encounter squarely.”
Chartrand was born and raised in the Metis community of St. Laurent, Manitoba, obtained a teaching diploma and was then one of the first Aboriginal persons to graduate from The University of Winnipeg with a BA in 1972. He obtained his law degree in Australia and his Masters of Law at the University of Saskatchewan and has taught and held other academic appointments in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He has spent his professional life in public service advising Indigenous organizations at the national and international level and has served as a commissioner on Manitoba’s Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission.
“We are honoured that a thinker of Paul Chartrand’s stature has accepted the appointment of Director in our young and evolving Aboriginal Governance program,” said Lloyd Axworthy President and Vice-Chancellor, UWinnipeg. “His enormous experience, his curiosity and his desire to open the university to new ideas and fresh ways of apprehending the world is exciting and will benefit us all.” Axworthy added that in the coming weeks he will be announcing several new Faculty appointments in the Aboriginal Governance program.
The Masters of Arts in Aboriginal Governance, which begins in September 2008, is designed to expand the knowledge and skills required to create effective leaders in Aboriginal and treaty rights. Courses include Indigenous Economic Development, Land Claim and Self-Government Negotiations, and Urban Aboriginal Governance.
Detailed information about The University of Winnipeg’s Aboriginal Governance program can be found at ag.uwinnipeg.ca
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Diane Poulin, Communications, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135 E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
Background Information
