Dr. Danielle Lussier, Red River Métis and citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, was born and raised in the homeland of the Métis Nation on Treaty 1 Territory. She is mum to three young people who are growing up as visitors on the shores of Lake Ontario. An award-winning change leader, educator, and administrator, she is a passionate advocate and community builder who believes there is room for love and humanity in post-secondary education.
She holds a Bachelor of Laws, a Licence en Droit (Bachelor of Civil Law of Quebec), a Master of Laws with Specialization in Women’s Studies, and a PhD in Law. Called to the bar in Ontario in 2009 following a research assistantship at the Supreme Court of Canada and clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada, Dr. Lussier served as the inaugural Indigenous Learner Advocate and Director of Community and Indigenous Relations at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law from 2018-2022. She now serves as Associate Vice-Principal, Indigenous Knowledges and Learning, at the Royal Military College of Canada, and she holds a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. She currently teaches in the department of English, Culture, and Communications and in the Indigenous Leadership Opportunity Year Program.
Dr. Lussier’s academic research focuses on reimagining relationships and encouraging ethical engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Communities, and Legal Knowledge through the development and use of Indigenous legal pedagogies. She also studies the role decolonized methodologies can play in the revitalization of Indigenous Legal Orders, pathways to reconciliation within, and decolonization of, post-secondary education, and anti-racist and feminist approaches to learning and community building. Her ground-breaking doctoral research which examined racism and sexism in professionalization processes and processes of building safer and more inclusive learning spaces included the production of a beaded honour shawl and was awarded the Pierre Laberge Thesis Prize for outstanding thesis in the humanities at the University of Ottawa. She has published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, the Indigenous Law Journal, the Ottawa Law Review, the Canadian Military Journal, and Textile: Cloth and Culture, amongst others.
Education
- Ph.D. in Law, University of Ottawa
- Master of Laws with Specialization in Women’s Studies (LL.M.), University of Ottawa
- Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), University of Ottawa
- Licence en droit (LL.L.), University of Ottawa
Recent publications
- 2023 “Reading the Beads: Legal Education, Métis Motherhood, and Reclaiming the Visual Record.” Forthcoming in the anthology Sharp Notions: Essays on the Stitching Life, Nancy Lee & Marita Dachsel, eds. Arsenal Pulp Press, August 2023.
- 2023 “The Ethical Imperative: Truth, Reconciliation, and the Royal Military College Experience.” Forthcoming, 22 Canadian Military Journal 1.
- 2023 “Legal Resurgence and Online Communities of (Beadwork) Practice.” Can’t Compute/Let’s Compute: Moving Towards an Equitable Digital World, University of Ottawa Press.
- 2023 “The Art of Teaching: Métis Beadwork and Indigenous Legal Pedagogy.” Forthcoming in Shelia Cote-Meek and Taima Moeke-Pickering, eds, "Global Perspectives on Indigenous Pedagogy in Education: Learning from One Another.”
- 2023 “Ob-La-Di, Oc-To-Pus (Life Goes On): A Modern Métis Fire Bag.” Traditional garment beaded on blue melton incorporating vintage trade beads, home-tanned moose hide, and lavender. Forthcoming in Textile: Cloth and Culture (Taylor and Francis).
- 2022 “What Do You Call an Indigenous Woman with a PhD in Law? Resisting Subjugation of Indigenous Expertise in Legal Spheres.” 34(1) Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 111.
- 2022 ““Other Materials” – Traitorous Love and Decolonizing the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation.” With Steven Stechly. Ottawa Law Review, Volume 53 (2021).
- 2022 “A Legal Love Letter to My Children: If These Beads Could Talk.” 18(1) Indigenous Law Journal 1 [Peer Reviewed].