VANCOUVER — Estella Charleson isn’t the first aboriginal lawyer to be called to the bar in the Great Hall of the B.C. Supreme Court, but she was the first to do it Hesquiaht style.

Forsaking the traditional court attire of a barrister’s black gown, white wing collar shirt, tabs and waistcoat, which was worn by 181 other lawyers in the Call and Admission Ceremony on Thursday, the 31-year-old from the Hesquiaht First Nation chose to wear regalia from her own tradition.

Charleson was dressed in a fur-trimmed, yellow cedar shawl adorned with abalone shell buttons and eagle feathers, and a native cedar hat. She also wore a dress bearing her family’s crest of a goose.

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“It’s incredibly important to me to represent where I come from and be a symbol of opportunity and hope. And it’s important for the legal profession to make space for who I am,” said Charleson, who works for JFK Law Corporation in Vancouver, specializing in aboriginal law.

“I’ve grown up in a Canadian society that has enacted policies to get rid of a culture and a way of life. Understanding the legal history of this colonization, its become even more important to me to represent my culture and indigenous identity.”

Her parents, Karen and Stephen Charleson, were at the ceremony, travelling from their off-the-grid home in Ayyisaqh, northwest of Tofino, where they are one of only two families still living in the traditional Hesquiaht territory there.

Charleson was raised, along with five siblings, on the oceanside reservation of Hot Springs Cove, accessible only by boat and which had no power or telephone service when she was growing up. There were about 100 people living there in Charleson’s youth, but that has since been reduced to around 40 people, she said.

In order to get her high school education, Charleson left her community at age 12 and lived on her own at a boarding school in Shawnigan Lake — an experience she described as a “huge culture shock.” She returned home after graduating, but a turning point came at the age of 21 when she decided to go to university to become a lawyer.

“I remember hearing the logging trucks on the land. It was devastating to know logging was happening in our territories and I was powerless to do anything about it. I was inspired to go back to school,” she said.

Her father said Charleson’s family and everyone at home is incredibly proud of her for becoming a lawyer, especially knowing she plans to work for First Nations people.

“I know she has a lot of strength inside and confidence. She’s learned from listening and watching at home,” he said.

“Last summer, she gathered all the cedar she needed herself (for her ceremony attire) and put it all together beside the creek where the fish flow. Seeing that dedication and preparation is the same she will bring to doing her job. She knows a lot of her history and a lot of things we need to fix.”

Charleson said the cedar for her shawl and hat was gathered from a tree near her parent’s cabin, and was harvested in the traditional way her ancestors have been doing it for generations.

“We were raised with such a strong connection to where we come from,” she said.

“Considering where I come from I feel an enormous amount of gratitude. It overwhelms me to think about everything that has happened in my life compared to my father’s lifetime. In the space of one generation, where my father suffered overt racism and active attempts to destroy our culture to me becoming a lawyer.”

According to the B.C. Law Society, there are 11,153 practising lawyers in British Columbia, of which 2.3 per cent are aboriginal, First Nations or Metis.

kpemberton@vancouversun.com

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