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law students who face challenges as they strive
to obtain their degree in the Faculty of Law at
the University of Manitoba.
The Ludwigs both have long standing
connections to the Aboriginal community
and to the university. After graduating from
the Faculty of Nursing at the U of M, Maylene
started her career as a nurse at the Children’s
Hospital where the majority of the clients
she dealt with were from the inner city and
northern communities.
“As a young nurse it was really my
first exposure to the sense of pride
and self worth that I saw in many
of our Aboriginal clients,” she said.
“It was because of that work that I
was able to understand the need
to give back.”
Maylene also points out the influence her own
father had on her approach to others. Working as
a manager at the legendary Oretzki’s department
store on Selkirk Avenue her father interacted
with people from all walks of life and passed that
example of respect on to his daughter.
“My dad had a way of dealing with Aboriginal
people and immigrant people and I learned from
him the importance of helping others,” she said.
“There was certainly a respect and understanding
of the hardships that other people go through and
I think that’s where I have a better understanding of
what we can do now.”
By the same token, Israel, a lawyer with Winnipeg
firm Duboff Edwards Haight & Schachter, has had
a personal and professional involvement with the
Aboriginal community throughout his law career.
Starting in the late 1990s, Israel worked with the
team of lawyers that negotiated the first settlement
claims for Aboriginal students who were abused in
the residential school system. Through this process he
represented hundreds of residential school survivors
and was moved by the stories of heartbreak and
endurance from the clients he met.
“My work in law is very much connected to the
Aboriginal community,” he says. “I felt because of that
experience it was time to give something back to
the university, for if it had not been for the training
I received at Robson Hall I would not have been
fortunate to be able to do this work.”
Besides both graduating from their respective
faculties on the same day in 1972, the Ludwigs were
actually first introduced during their time as students
at university and used to meet in the UC lounge, a
meeting point between the nursing and law faculties
at that time. They have a daughter who graduated
from the Asper School of Business.
UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA, FACULTY OF LAW robsonhall.ca 18