Meet the Independent Special Interlocutor

Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools

Kimberly Murray is a member of the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Nation.

Prior to this new role, Ms. Murray worked to assist Survivors at Six Nations of the Grand River create the Survivors’ Secretariat and helped commence the search processes to recover the missing children and unmarked burials at the Mohawk Institute.

Ms. Murray was the Province of Ontario’s first ever Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Indigenous Justice, from April 1, 2015 to August 2, 2021, where she was responsible for creating a unit to work with Indigenous communities on revitalizing their Indigenous laws and legal orders. In 2018-2019, Ms. Murray chaired the Expert Panel on Policing in Indigenous Communities, which produced the report Toward Peace Harmony, and Well-Being.

From 2010 to 2015, Ms. Murray was the Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada where she worked to ensure that Survivors of Canada’s Indian Residential School system were heard and honoured and to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

From 1995 to 2010, Ms. Murray was staff lawyer and then Executive Director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. She has appeared before all levels of courts on Indigenous legal issues. She has acted as counsel at numerous coroner inquests and public inquiries—including the Ipperwash Inquiry in Ontario and the Frank Paul Inquiry in British Columbia.

Ms. Murray is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2017 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice and the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Distinction in Public Administration. In 2015, the Indigenous Bar Association granted Ms. Murray the Indigenous Peoples Counsel (IPC) designation.