Committee Member
Catherine Bell is a Professor of Law at the University of Alberta and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Niigata Japan, University of Victoria, Program of Legal Studies for Native People (University of Saskatchewan), and the Akitsiraq Law School, Nunavut. Professor Bell also acts as an advisor to Canadian, Metis and First Nation governments and has served as a lead faculty member at the Banff Center for Management, Aboriginal Leadership and Self-Government Program. Professor Bell currently teaches in the areas of Aboriginal law, property law, and dispute resolution. She has participated in numerous workshops and seminars relating to issues of repatriation and trade of material culture and protection of intangible cultural heritage sponsored by governments, WIPO, UNESCO, museums, academic institutions, and indigenous organizations in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa and has presented papers at numerous national and international conferences. She has published widely on Aboriginal legal issues concerning First Nations and Metis peoples in Canada. Some of her recent publications related to indigenous cultural heritage include: Catherine Bell and Val Napoleon, eds., First Nations? Cultural Heritage and Law: Case Studies, Voices and Perspectives and Catherine Bell and Robert Paterson, eds., Protection of First Nations Cultural Heritage: Laws, Policy and Reform (forthcoming 2008 UBC Press); “Protecting Indigenous Cultural Heritage in Canada: Kitkatla v B.C.” ( 2001); 10(2) International Journal of Cultural Property 246; "Limitations, Legislation and Domestic Repatriation" (1995); Material Culture in Flux, University of British Columbia Law Review, Special Issue 149, "Aboriginal Claims to Cultural Property in Canada: A Comparative Analysis of the Repatriation Debate" (1992); 17(2) American Indian Law Review 457 and with Robert Paterson "Aboriginal Rights to Repatriation of Cultural Property" in A. Walkem and H. Bruce, eds. Box of Treasures of Empty Box: Twenty Years of Section 35 ( Theytus Books, 2004); and "Aboriginal Rights to Cultural Property in Canada" (1999) 8(1) International Journal of Cultural Property 251.
