Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 19/05) - Violence against women, education, healthcare and cultural survival were among the issues raised by the First Nations and Metis women who gathered in Yellowknife last week.

Delegates honoured former NWAC President Bertha Allen of Inuvik, who received the Jane Gottfriedson award for a lifetime of work supporting aboriginal women and families. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

They were part of the Native Women's Association of Canada's (NWAC) 31st annual general meeting at the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife. The president and 71 delegates from across Canada shared regional concerns and common struggles in preparation for November's First Minister's conference in Kelowna, B.C.

The Jane Gottfriedson award, named after a long time activist and NWAC member, honoured four women for contributions in their communities. Former NWAC president Bertha Allen, a Gwich'in community organizer from Inuvik, was among the recipients. Allen presented the keynote address, encouraging young women to make themselves heard.

All speakers at the conference called for more women to get active in community politics.

"It's really important that women be involved in politics because the women are the caregivers and the ones who are the most aware of what's needed in our communities," said NWAC president Beverley Jacobs, a Mohawk. "When women are involved in politics it brings those perspectives to the table. The women are going to be the ones who come up with the solutions."

The NWAC created the Sisters in Spirit campaign in 2004 to raise awareness of the more than 500 Aboriginal women missing in Canada. The issue of women's safety was prominent at the conference.

Jacobs worked as Amnesty International's lead researcher during the human rights organization's inquiry into Vancouver's missing women. She visited the crime scene at the pig farm and interviewed the families.

"It is such a critical time right now because there are Aboriginal women going missing every day and it's not being picked up by the media and by society in general," Jacobs said. "It is horrific."

The delegates marked the 20th anniversary of Bill C-31, the name given to the amendment changing the rules governing status eligibility. Jacobs criticized the status definitions created in the subsections of section six of the bill.

"Bill C-31 was supposed to eliminate discrimination under the Indian Act but what it's created is further elements and levels of discrimination and not just gender," she said. "It's affecting men and women, male and female children and our whole First Nations communities. There's been estimations that there will be no status Indians within the next 40 to 50 years. In some communities it may be even the next ten years."

Agnes Silverthorn of Inuvik, attended the meeting as acting regional representative for the Mackenzie Delta. She identified education, violence against women and children and childcare as three of the major issues she discussed at the conference.

Experiencing same problems

"Although we are miles and miles apart we are experiencing the same problems," she said.

"When we get together like this we feel strong. The government's always saying here's the little rule, or the law, for us to follow. Well, change should start from the bottom and spread up."

Silverthorn also raised concerns about the erosion of her Gwich'in culture.

"Grandmothers should stand up now and start saying we want our culture back," she said. "We're being assimilated so fast pretty soon we'll be off the map. We need to teach our language and we need to take our children out on the land for a month at a time."