Jean Teillet, IPC, OMN, MSC, (BFA, LLB, LLM)

Ms. Teillet is an author, thread artist, women’s rights advocate, and a recently retired Indigenous rights lawyer. She wrote the libretto for a choral suite of Métis songs, Stories of the Land, which premiered June 8, 2024, in Vancouver, performed by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Ms. Teillet is the author of a 2022 report on Indigenous Identity Fraud. She has appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada twelve times in Indigenous rights cases. Ms. Teillet’s popular history, The North-West is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People, the Métis Nation was one of the Globe & Mail’s top 100 books of 2019 and won the Carol Shield’s and Manitoba Day awards. She is the author of Métis Law in Canada and has written for academic journals, the Globe & Mail and Macleans. A frequent public speaker throughout Canada and internationally, Jean has been awarded the highest honour of her people, the Order of the Métis Nation. The Indigenous Bar Association has awarded Jean it’s highest honour, Indigenous Peoples Counsel. She has three honorary doctorates (University of Guelph, Windsor University and Law Society of Ontario). In recognition of decades of work with midwives, Jean has been made an honorary lifetime member of the Association of Ontario Midwives. Canada has awarded Ms. Teillet a Meritorious Service Cross for her work with Indigenous communities. Her Indigenous community is the Red River Métis. She is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and is the great grandniece of Louis Riel.