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A Community-Based Learning Initiative at KWE!

This summer, the Observatory on Human Rights at the United Nations, based at the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa, participated in the KWE! Festival through a community-based learning initiative supported by the Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program Award. Through conversations with Indigenous Elders, leaders, and community members, students explored Indigenous rights, identity, culture, and reconciliation while experiencing human rights beyond the classroom.

The Fulbright Canada Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program Award

The Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program Award supports volunteer-led, community-based initiatives led by Fulbright Canada alumni that foster collaboration, public service, community engagement, and meaningful social impact. Through experiential learning, the program encourages projects that connect academic knowledge with lived experience and strengthen partnerships between universities and communities.

The award made it possible for students from the Observatory on Human Rights at the United Nations to participate in the KWE! Festival, where they engaged directly with Indigenous communities, learned from Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and explored human rights beyond the classroom through dialogue, reflection, and relationship-building.

The project is led by Dr. Pascale Fournier, recipient of the Fulbright Canada Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program Award, whose longstanding commitment to experiential learning, human rights, and community engagement inspired this initiative. As Director of the Observatory on Human Rights at the UN, Dr. Fournier envisioned From Law to Living Knowledge as an opportunity for law students to move beyond traditional legal education by learning directly from Indigenous communities. Under her leadership, the project encourages students to approach human rights through listening, dialogue, humility, and meaningful relationships, recognizing that some of the most important lessons are found not only in legal texts, but in lived experience and community knowledge.