Indigenous Law in Context: Intensive

Note: This course does not meet the graduation requirement for students to complete an intensive course. 

Schedule: September 17 - September 20, 2026

For a decade Jackman Law has offered the Indigenous Law in Context program, a three-day intensive. The program introduces participants to Indigenous law from a land-based perspective, and they receive teachings from elders and other members of the community on Anishinaabe law and legal traditions. This year the program is taking place on the Giiwedin Ki—Rama First Nation, on Lake Couchiching, outside of Orillia Ontario. Professor John Borrows (Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law) and adjunct instructor Promise Holmes Skinner will lead the course.  There will be joint activities with law students from Osgoode Hall, Queen’s, University of Victoria, and Toronto Metropolitan University. The class requires a willingness to learn in an immersive setting, where weather is variable and accommodations are appropriate to camp-like conditions. Students will travel to the site together on Thursday, September 17, and camp as a group on the First Nation's lands, returning Sunday, September 20.  

Students interested in this course should submit a letter of interest to Assistant Dean Sara Faherty at  sara.faherty@utoronto.ca  by 10:00 am on Tuesday August 4, 2026. 

A “letter of interest” should include specific personal, academic, or professional experiences that stimulate your interest in the course. For example, if your first exposure to informed reflection on Indigenous legal issues was during your first-year classes please write about this. One of the primary reasons for the course is to invite the law school community to engage in thinking about important legal and historical issues in new ways.