Pamela Palmater (1970 -)

Pamela Palmater is a Mi'kmaq woman from the Eel River Reservation in New Brunswick. She is a lawyer, professor, and an award-winning activist for aboriginal peoples and their rights. Palmater fights for many different social justice issues, including child and family services, treaty rights, education for aboriginal peoples, and off-reserve housing. She has been particularly critical of the Indian Act.

• Palmater has four university degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies and History, a Bachelor of Law, a Master of Laws, and a Doctorate in the Science of Law.
• In 2011, she published her first book Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity. This book addresses the way that the Indian Act and the government decide who is legally a status Indian in Canada.
• Palmater was involved in the “Idle No More” from the beginning - raising awareness of the treatment of Indigenous women and the law.
• In 2012, Palmater ran to be the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and was a runner up.
• She has won many awards for her work, including the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in Social Justice.
• She is the Associate Professor and Chair for the Indigenous Governance Program at Ryerson University in Toronto.