Staff Profiles
Anisa White
Research Officer: Land, Law and Governance
Anisa White is Cree/Métis going back six generations to the Red River in Manitoba, as well as having ancestry in the St. Paul de Métis Settlement and Whitefish Lake First Nation in Alberta, and Turtle Mountain in North Dakota. She is also part Persian.
Anisa graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) degree from the University of Western Australia in 2003. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Law degree (LL.B.) from Murdoch University (Perth, Western Australia) in 2008. She undertook an exchange year at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law (Victoria, British Columbia) to carry out comparative study in Canadian/Australian Aboriginal legal issues in 2005-2006. During that time, she was a founding member of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law Indigenous Law Club; a forum established to explore Indigenous legal traditions in Canada and around the world.
Anisa brings critical international experience working with Aboriginal law and governance issues to NCFNG. In Western Australia, Anisa worked as a research assistant at Yamatji Marlpa Barna Baba Maaja Land and Sea Council which is the native title representative body for 30 native title claim groups. The claim groups are located in the resource-rich areas of Pilbara, Murchison and Gascoyne.
In British Columbia, she was a Negotiations Analyst at the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation on a range of land and resource matters, travelling to numerous communities. She was also Senior Advisor in the same Ministry for the Aboriginal Co-ordinated Service Delivery Initiative; a project to test innovative service delivery models on reserves. She has also been a consultant for the Centre for Native Policy and Research, on urban Aboriginal women’s issues.
Anisa actively participates in the cultural practices of her community. She can jig for hours. She is married to Doug White III who is a lawyer and they live in Vancouver. She participates in potlatches of her husband’s family who are Coast Salish (Snuneymuxw First Nation) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Hupacasath First Nation).
Anisa believes it is vital in this next stage of development of humanity, to honour the legal systems, histories and teachings of Indigenous peoples and promote the respectful and meaningful manifestation of their legal systems, histories and teachings in advancing governance. In this spirit, she recognizes and honours the Coast Salish peoples upon whose territory she has respectfully come to study, live and work, and give thanks to them for welcoming her onto their lands and into their communities.
Anisa is a full-time Research Officer with the Land, Law and Governance Research Directorate.
