Construction has started on the National Centre for Indigenous Laws at the University of Victoria.
The centre will be connected to the Murray and Anne Fraser Building and will include public lecture theatres, faculty and staff offices, classrooms, meeting space and an elders’ room. The project is expected to cost $27.1 million. The province is providing $13 million, the federal government is contributing $9.1 million and $5 million is coming from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.
“This physical structure represents a sanctuary where our laws, which enable us to be peoples, will be safe, and where both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students will learn about those laws, creating the foundation to a multi-juridical Canada,” said Dr. Val Napoleon, a professor at the University of Victoria and the chair of the Law Foundation of Indigenous Justice and Governance.
The centre will be home to the first joint degree in Indigenous legal orders and Canadian common law.