Jennifer Geens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 23/05) - When representatives of aboriginal women in the NWT had the ear of the federal government, they made the most of it.

Delegates to the Native Women's Association of the NWT's annual general assembly peppered Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin Andrew with question after question for nearly two and a half hours last Saturday morning.

Blondin-Andrew and Premier Joe Handley were the keynote speakers, there to update the 50 delegates on the Northern Strategy initiative.

Association executive director Audrey Zoe said Blondin-Andrew told them to put their concerns into a letter addressed to the premier, so he could raise the issues at the upcoming first minister's meeting in Kelowna.

"That's what I'll be doing Monday morning," said Zoe.

Two main issues were under discussion at the weekend conference in Ndilo.

One was how to gain a voice in negotiations for the distribution of Mackenzie Valley pipeline project's community payments.

The Native Women's Association has asked for one of their board members to be included on each regional committee.

So far only the Gwich'in region has agreed to include a representative from the association on their committee, though the Deh Cho has expressed interest in the idea.

The other pressing concern was participation in the Native Women's Association of Canada's Sisters in Spirit campaign, to assist the national office in establishing a database of missing aboriginal women.

In May, the campaign received a pledge of $5 million over five years from the federal government.

The Native Women's Association of the NWT would like to put $500,000 of that money into healing programs for the families of missing women in the NWT.

A 1996 Statscan study showed that aboriginal women are five times more likely to die as a result of violence than any other group of women in Canada.