Maria Lucas (she/her/hers) is a staff lawyer at West Coast whose work focuses on environmental law reform and Indigenous rights in British Columbia, including advocating for the development of legislation that aims to promote and protect biodiversity and ecosystem health and advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
Maria attended law school at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law where she specialized in Aboriginal law and Indigenous legal traditions. Before joining West Coast, Maria practiced Aboriginal law at a law firm in Toronto where she supported Indigenous communities in advancing and protecting their Aboriginal and treaty rights through consultation and litigation processes. Maria undertook this work all with a view to building greater space for the exercise of Indigenous self-determination and governance.
Maria was drawn to the practice of Aboriginal law because its purpose is to reconcile Indigenous-Crown relations. Maria has a long-standing interest in how this relationship may be reconciled at the intersection of natural resource development and environmental regulation. Maria believes that this intersection offers enormous opportunity to ethically “braid” Indigenous legal orders and Crown law in developing legislation and other legal tools that will assist in protecting and preserving our environment, which she views as our common home.
When not thinking about the complex issues that can arise in environmental law reform and in advancing Indigenous rights, Maria can be found trying new cooking recipes and hanging out with family and friends.