I'm a passionate advocate for defending and advancing Indigenous rights.
10 years ago I founded First Peoples Law, one of Canada's leading law firms working solely on behalf of First Nations. I'm grateful to my colleagues for recognizing me nationally and internationally as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in Aboriginal law. I represent First Nations across Canada and teach at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law.
My great-grandparents took Métis scrip at Red River in Manitoba. My family was dispossessed of its land at St. Peter's and moved, along with the Peguis First Nation, 200 kms north where they started over again doing their best to farm between swamps and rock ridges. Picking rocks as a kid was one of my motivation
Nisha Patel is a queer spoken word poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the Canadian Individual Slam Champion, and has been performing and writing in her community for five years. In 2021, she will be acting as one of the Edmonton Public Library’s Writers in Residence. She is the founder of Moon Jelly House, a publishing house centering the voices of marginalized poets by publishing chapbooks for emerging spoken word artists. She is two-time Canadian Festival of Spoken Word finalist. During this time, Nisha was also recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award, and is the current Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival, Western Canada’s largest poetry festival.
