She will give a lecture and poetry reading — a conversation about language, memory and presence — marking her first visit to Winnipeg. The event will take place on Thursday, October 16 at 4:00 p.m. in the John A. Russell Atrium.

Professor Christine Stewart from the Faculty of Arts, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, who helped organize the event, says she hopes the UM community will discover what has inspired her for years in Tohe’s work —

“the blend of beauty, heartache and grit that her poetry carries.” 

Laura Tohe reciting poem at Navajo Code Talker Day in Window Rock, AZ.

Poetry and decoding 

Dr. Laura Tohe is a poet, scholar and the Poet Laureate Emerita of the Navajo Nation (2015–2025). Her father was among the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II—those who used their language to transmit military intelligence that the enemy could never decipher.

Tohe believes that reading and appreciating poetry is, at its heart, a process of decoding. The beauty of a poem lies in how imagery, metaphor, musicality and context weave together — much like the Navajo Code Talkers who used familiar words to carry meanings far beyond the literal. 

In one story, Tohe recalls a coded message that read “horses were dying.” Japanese cryptographers took it at face value, unaware that its real meaning had nothing to do with horses. 

“Indigenous writers, including myself, use metaphorical testimonies and cultural memories to carry the context of a painful and complicated history.” 

Laura Tohe interview with Sam Akee, Navajo Code Talker and his wife.

Language as weapon, language as memory 

The story of the Code Talkers deepened Tohe’s understanding of language’s power. Those men turned their mother tongue into a code that saved lives — a language reborn in the military, one that “was never deciphered by enemy combatants.” 

Yet in peacetime, that same language was silenced. In residential schools it was forbidden, shamed and nearly erased from classrooms and memory. Tohe notes that the U.S. Department of Defense recently removed the names of the Code Talkers from its website in the name of “diversity, equity and inclusion” — erasing once more those who had defended the nation through their own words. 

“Language is fragile; it can be forgotten if it’s not passed on or spoken,” Tohe said. 

Left: Laura Tohe at the 2019 American Indian Festival of Words & Writers Award.
Right: Laura Tohe printing her poem “Map Songs of the Sandhill Cranes.“

From individual to collective renewal 

In Tohe’s work, language is constantly reborn — from page to score, from line to stage. She calls this transformation a “rebirthing” of words and images, allowing poetry to live on through sound, movement and performance. 

Her librettos Enemy Slayer and Nahasdzáán in the Glittering World have invited many Indigenous students and audiences to experience opera for the first time. Nahasdzáán in the Glittering World was later performed in several cities across France, drawing audiences who were perhaps familiar with poetry but not with Indigenous works rooted in Navajo storytelling. 

Through these collaborations, Indigenous storytelling finds new spaces to be heard and felt. At the close of the interview, Tohe reflected,

“Contemporary Indigenous writers are revitalizing endangered tribal languages through initiatives such as the Language Back movement and other creative programs, making visible once again the languages and arts that sustain Indigenous lives and communities.”

Event information

Come experience Laura Tohe’s poetry in person on October 16 at 4:00 p.m. and witness how language continues to carry memory and meaning across generations. Add to your calendar!

• Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025, 4:00 p.m. 
• Location: John A. Russell Atrium (84 Curry Place)
• Format: Free and open to the public 

For more information, please contact Christine Stewart (christine.stewart@umanitoba.ca).

Lepofsky holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (Honours) from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Master of Laws from Harvard, and has received Honorary Doctorates in Law from Queen’s, University of Western Ontario, and Brock University. He is a member of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, and has been inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame.

Professor David Lepofsky visits Robson Hall Jan. 9.

For many years, Professor Lepofsky worked for both the Civil and Criminal Crown Law Offices of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. Prior to his current role at Western, he served from 2016 to June 2023 as a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and was a part-time member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law since 1991, teaching an advanced constitutional law seminar on freedom of expression and press. He has lectured widely on various aspects of constitutional and administrative law, human rights, disability rights and other topics across Canada, as well as in the U.S., Israel, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and New Zealand.

Since the late 1970s, he has been active in a volunteer capacity, advocating for new laws to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in Canada. In 1980, he appeared before the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution of Canada, on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind for an amendment to the proposed Charter of Rights, to guarantee equality rights to persons with disabilities. The efforts of a great many combined to lead Parliament to pass the disability amendment to the Charter. He has undertaken volunteer advocacy efforts both nationally and internationally in support of equal rights for people with disabilities.

Lepofsky is the author of the book Open Justice – the Constitutional Right to Attend and Speak About Criminal Proceedings in Canada, published by Butterworth & Co, and he is the author or co-author of over 30 law journal articles or book chapters on topics including constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law, human rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. His publications have been cited with approval in several decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as by trial and appeal courts across Canada.

While visiting Robson Hall, Lepofsky plans to meet with professors and administrators to discuss strategies for expanding disability content in the law school curriculum – the topic of his recently published article in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, “People with Disabilities Need Lawyers Too! A Ready-To-Use Plan for Law Schools to Educate Law Students to Effectively Serve the Legal Needs of Clients with Disabilities as Well as Clients Without Disabilities.” In that article, Lepofsky argues that Canada’s legal profession is not sufficiently equipped to meet the legal needs of clients with disabilities, and provides a roadmap for law schools to work towards expanding their respective disability curriculae.

“Today’s law students want to learn how to serve the legal needs of all clients, including those with a disability, a vulnerable minority whom the legal profession has too often underserved,” said Lepofsky. “Law students also welcome the chance to learn how to use their talents to systematically tear down the many accessibility barriers that impede millions of people in Canada who have a disability.”

The University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law currently offers a course on Law and Disability taught by Professor Darcy MacPherson and Assistant Professor Brandon Trask in the 2023 Fall term. In the 2024 Winter Term, Trask will be teaching Mental Heath Law. Both professors recently issued a call for submissions for a Manitoba Law Journal special edition on Disability and the Law (Volume 47, Issue 2) which is expected to be published in full early in 2024.

At the moment, law students’ exposure to working with clients with disabilities comes from the mandatory upper-year course “Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility,” and from working in the clinics such as the University of Manitoba Community Law Centre, the Legal Help Centre and the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic where they may encounter clients with disabilities, but Lepofsky is concerned that law schools should incorporate more knowledge, awareness and experience throughout its curriculum.

The Distinguished Visitors Lecture Series welcomes David Lepofsky to Robson Hall on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 12pm in the Harry Walsh Moot Courtroom (Side B).

ALS interpreters will be in attendance. This event will be recorded.

Professor Lepofsky spoke at Robson Hall previously in 2018. View his lecture on the Robson Hall Youtube Channel.