James (Sakej) Youngblood Henderson:
Havard-trained lawyer prefers to listen
Article by Carmen Pauls Orthner
Two ears. One mouth. There's a reason human beings were created
that way, and James Youngblood Henderson- commonly known as Sakej-
understands it better than most.
"My best ability has always been to be able to listen...
I don't like be out there being the attention-getter, saying
'This is what we should do.' You have to come to understand,
through listening to a person, what they're really trying to
get at... That always changes you... and that is a risk that
many people close themselves off to. I've never been one of those
people."
In many ways, Henderson has been defined by his willingness to
listen, and to risk being changed by what he hears. Since graduating
in 1974 from the prestigious Harvard Law School, Henderson has
become one of the foremost Indigenous rights lawyers in North
America.
Henderson is soft-spoken, understated and, when put in the spotlight,
as he was a winner in the law and justice category and honored
at the Jan. 27 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards gala, he
is pleased but feels a bit aloof from the process. He was in
the middle of an Assembly of First Nations executive meeting
when the initial call came about the award, and tellingly, he
reacted with a touch of surprise, agreed to accept the honor,
then went back to the meeting. When asked after the meeting about
the call, he couldn't recall what it was for. "I didn't
even think about it, because we had difficult issues before us,"
he said.
When put in the position of a legal defender or a teacher-the
two roles he's played most in the last 30 years-Henderson's energy
ignites. Since 1974, he has ...
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