Elder Claudette Commanda

Elder Claudette Commanda is an Algonquin Anishinabe from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation located in the province of Quebec.  An alumni of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Common Law and Faculty of Arts, Claudette has dedicated the last 35 years to promoting First Nations people, history, culture and rights. 

She is a professor at the University of Ottawa and the Chief Executive Officer of the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres, a national organization which protects and promotes First Nations culture, languages and traditional knowledge. She was inducted into the Common Law Honour Society; served two terms on the Board of Governors for the First Nations University of Canada; and three terms on the Kitigan Zibi band council.  

In 2017, Claudette was the first First Nation appointed Elder in Residence for the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and the first person of a First Nation heritage to be appointed to the Board of Governors for the University of Ottawa. Claudette is a proud mother of four, a grandmother to ten beautiful grandchildren, and recently a great grandmother. In March 2020, Claudette received the 2020 INDSPIRE Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. In November 2022, she was appointed Chancellor for the University of Ottawa. She is the first Indigenous person to be appointed Chancellor of the university. On September 20, 2024, she received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her advocacy of First Nation people, rights and languages nationally and internationally.