Securing social justice for Indigenous people in Canada has been a life-long passion for Dr Cathy Richardson.
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The Méti (Canada's Aboriginal peoples} woman with Gwich'in and Dani ancestry has been righting the wrongs in her home of Montreal.
Now the First Nations' activist is going from acting local to thinking global, bringing her message to University of Wollongong students
UOW launched National Reconciliation Week on Friday with a lecture from Dr Richardson, who talked about social justice, focusing on her work with Indigenous communities in Canada.
The former University of Montreal professor, who is now the director of First Peoples' Studies at Concordia University, said the issues facing Aboriginals in Canada and Australia were similar.
These issues Dr Richardson said, were especially evident in her violence prevention and recovery therapy work.
"A lot of my work has been related to children who have been taken into the child welfare system and the importance of helping them to stay connected to their culture and to their people, family and relatives.....and some of the ways to do that despite the systemic challenges," she said.
"I work a lot also with Aboriginal people who have been mistreated earlier in their life in the context of what we call residential schools. I believe you have boarding schools here in Australia.
"So there is the history of church abuse of children and being taken away from your people, your culture and basically everything that was sacred in their lives.
"The question then is how do people regain their sense of self and sense of connection. We all have a place in this earth."
Dr Richardson, who is also a spokesperson on Indigenous Affairs for the Green Party of Quebec, added there were a lot of parallels between Australia and Canada, notably both countries were colonised by Britain.
Uranium mining was also an issue for both countries, she said.
"Mining companies are taking up a lot of the land and exploiting in different ways that has resulted in a lot of pollution and it affects indigenous communities quite directly....in Canada most of the toxic dumps and tailing ponds are right by the indigenous communities.
"Even at Standing Rock the government wants to put pipelines through indigenous communities but they never do it through mainstream white communities.
"As the planet is facing the climate change challenges we are really trying to address pollution and stop exploitation of Mother Earth.
"We have to keep up a culture of compassion and caring for one another."
National Reconciliation Week was established in 1996 and is celebrated each year from May 27 to June 3.
The dates commemorate two significant milestones in Australia's reconciliation journey- the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.