Viola Robinson
Ms. Robinson is a Mi’kmaq woman born in Amherst, Nova
Scotia. She attended the Indian Day School at Shubenacadie Reserve (Indian
Brook), then went to the Sacred Heart Academy in Meteghan, Nova Scotia and
Maritime Business College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has spent her life as an
advocate for the Mi’kmaq people and for the human rights of First Nations
across the country.
While she is best known as the founding and long time president of the Native Council of Nova Scotia as well as the Native Council of Canada, her other achievements are numerous. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree from Dalhousie University in 1990. She served as a Commissioner with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. She completed a law degree at Dalhousie Law School in May 1998. She is now a Senior Mi’kmaq Advisor on the Negotiations Team with the Mi’kmaq Rights Initiative. Although she is not a Survivor of the Residential Schools, her close family members, including her late brother, are all Survivors.