Bio
Lorena Sekwan Fontaine (LL.B., LL.M.) is Cree-Anishinabe from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. She is an associate professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg. She is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Manitoba. Her research is on Aboriginal language rights in Canada.
Currently, Lorena is an Equality Rights Panel member of the Court Challenges Program and an editor for ab-Original: Journal of Indigenous Studies and First Nations’ and First Peoples’ Cultures, Penn State University Press. Since 2003, Lorena has been an advocate for Aboriginal residential school survivors, as well as children of residential school survivors. She has spoken nationally and has authored articles in Australia and Canada on residential school issues. In 2003, she was a task force member and contributor to the Assembly of First Nations’ report on Canada’s dispute resolution plan to compensate for abuses in residential schools. Lorena has also acted as a legal consultant to the Toronto law firm Thomson, Rogers for the plaintiffs and their counsel in the Baxter National Residential School Class Action, as well as to Mother of Red Nations Women’s Council in Manitoba on cultural harm issues. She has been involved with the Digital Storytelling project on the intergenerational legacy of the residential schools. The Digital Storytelling project has been presented across Canada and the United States and in Iceland.