From Law Student to Idle No More: A talk by Tanya Kappo

From Law Student to Idle No More: A talk by Tanya Kappo. Presented by the Centre for Human Rights Research.

Recorded January 25, 2013 at Robson Hall, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba.

When Tanya Kappo graduated from the University of Manitoba's Robson Hall law school in May 2012, it was clear to her colleagues and friends that her drive and passion would lead her to make an impact in the world. Six months later, Kappo started the #idlenomore Twitter conversation that is now spreading like a Prairie grassfire―a new Indigenous movement that is shaking up Canada.

Kappo returns to the University of Manitoba from her articling position in Edmonton to talk about her experience with Idle No More.

A single mother of three, Kappo is the second of at least three generations of Indigenous activists. At age 24, her father Harold Cardinal led national opposition to then Indian Affairs minister Jean Chrétien's notorious "White Paper" designed to terminate First Nations treaty rights. And Kappo's eldest child, James Harper, a University of Manitoba engineering student, recently spoke at an Idle No More protest on campus.

"The astonishing growth of the Idle No More movement is humbling," says Kappo, who organized one of the movement's first teach-ins and who advocates non-violent protest.

Kappo grew up on the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 8 territory in northwestern Alberta with her mother Margaret Kappo, a social worker and community leader. Sneaking into the reserve's eerie abandoned residential school as a child helped her understand what her parents had suffered, while law school helped prepare her for leadership in the new tech-savvy generation that is driving change.

"Kappo is smart, grounded and determined. She will be a force to reckon with in Indigenous politics and law," said law professor Karen Busby, who directs the Centre for Human Rights Research sponsoring Kappo's visit.