Interview with Naiomi W. Metallic

CBA National: Who has had the biggest influence on you and why?

Naiomi Metallic: My dad. My mom. My high school English teacher, Ora Watson. The Mi’kmaq professor who encouraged me to apply to law school, Patti Doyle-Bedwell. The Hon. Michel Bastarache for picking me, of all people, to be one of his law clerks. My husband, Al Mcpherson.

N: If you had a personal motto what would it be? 

NM: Treat others as you wish to be treated.

N: What would you do if you could take a year off?

NM: I would want to immerse myself in Mìgmaq language, culture, worldview, principles and laws. Become fluent in my language and culture.

N: Name three books that influenced you.

NM: The Unjust Society by Harold Cardinal and Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens by J.R. Miller figured really prominently in learning about the historic treatment of indigenous people by the state in a way I didn't learn in high school. George Orwell’s 1984 was influential in my understanding of relationships between citizens and state, helping me as a young person to understand that the state may not always be benign in its actions.

N: What new skill would you like to learn and why?

NM: Speaking Mìgmaq, because it’s so important to being Mìgmaq and knowing our worldview. I think I would also enjoy learning traditional native dancing, but I’m probably too old for that now.

N: If you were not a lawyer what would you be?

NM: I often think I’d enjoy being much more involved in my husband’s restaurant, like his front-of-house manager.

N: What advice would you give your younger self?

NM: I would tell myself to have spent more time with my Dad, in my late teens and early twenties. He died when I was 28.

N: If you could change one thing about the practice of law what would it be?

NM: I would make it more reflective of and accessible to historically disadvantaged communities.