Education key for Judy White, N.L.'s 1st Indigenous woman to chair Human Rights Commission

The new chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission wants to focus on educating people about their rights as she steps into her new role.

Judy White is the province's first Indigenous woman to be appointed as commissioner.

The commission "absolutely, positively" has a role in educating the public, White said.

"That's probably one of my biggest priorities with respect to this role, is to ensure that people actually understand, what are human rights, and how violating them can actually come to be," she said told CBC Newfoundland Morning.

White was born and raised in Flat Bay, and now lives in Conne River.

As a lawyer, White worked has served on various boards and advisory groups, and worked for years with Indigenous groups.

Human rights is a right and they extend to the best of us, and they extend to the worst of us.- Judy White

Most recently, White was the assistant deputy minister of Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat.

"Elimination of racial discrimination requires that we build unity, while respecting diversity," White said.

"The experiences that I've been privileged to have with respect to working with 648 First Nations across this country will help me, one, to bring awareness, two, our diversity as Indigenous peoples, but also to be able to I guess relate or understand on probably a more intimate level the diversity of various other peoples within our province."

White said through the years, she's worked on more or less a daily basis with human rights violations against Indigenous peoples, even though it may not have been called that.

"With colonialism. a lot of times, it is the systemic racism of the way things are done that impacted Indigenous people, so from that standpoint, it was daily," she said.

"Now I have to point out that we didn't always categorize it as, this is a human rights violation, because we're not programmed to think that way, and that's a big part of what I hope to do as chair … changing the conversation."

Human rights apply to everyone

The general public may not be aware of exactly what constitutes a human right, and therefore what a violation of those rights would entail.

That's where the education component comes in, White said.

"The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on our race, our culture, our nationality, our ethnic origin, our social origin, so there's a number of infractions that could happen, and I think that more often than not we don't even realize that they could be a violation of our human rights," White said.

"It doesn't matter if you're X kind of person or Y kind of person, human rights is a right and they extend to the best of us, and they extend to the worst of us."

White said she's moving into the role and hoping to maintain a respectful and understanding attitude in all situations.

She added that she "couldn't have done it" without her friends, family and community supporting her through the years.

"I am so privileged to have so much support from my family and friends, near and far. And it's because of that support that it encourages me and it makes me feel good that when I break the ceiling, we're all breaking a ceiling," she said.

"I recognize my privilege, but it comes because I've always been grounded in who I am, where I'm going, and why I'm doing it. and it is for my community and my family."

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador