Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Betty Villebrun says she loves a challenge.

And the Fort Smith woman has a new challenge as the recently-elected president of the Northwest Territory Metis Nation (NWTMN).

Betty Villebrun, the new president of Northwest Territory Metis Nation, says she is up for the challenge of leading the organization. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Villebrun said she takes the responsibility of promoting Metis interests and culture very seriously.

"It's very important to me, because I have children and grandchildren that have to know their culture," she said.

Villebrun, 49, said Metis culture was passed on to her by her parents and grandparents.

"I'd say it is very strong," she said of Metis culture in the South Slave, adding it would be strengthened even further when land, resources and governance negotiations with the federal and territorial governments are concluded.

The organization represents Metis people in Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Resolution.

"It is very important for me to be a Metis," Villebrun said. "I'm very proud of where I came from."

Villebrun has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She was elected the Metis Nation's first female president on Nov. 6.

The organization's new vice-president and secretary-treasurer are also women, creating the first all-female executive in the 38-year history of the organization, which was once known as the South Slave Metis Tribal Council.

Villebrun praised vice-president Tammy Hunter of Fort Resolution and secretary-treasurer Ann Lobb of Hay River as very smart women who will work hard.

She was interim president for 45 days before being elected president for a two-year term.

Born and raised in Fort Smith, she has been involved in the Metis Nation for many years.

"I was always involved since the early 1980s," she said, adding she began sitting on the board in 1998 and had been secretary-treasurer since 2006.

Leading the organization is a bit of a family affair for Villebrun. Her brother Gord Villebrun was also president from the late 1980s through most of the 1990s.

"Actually, he wished me well and said he had a lot of confidence in me," she said, adding her brother also offered her any help, if she needed it.

Villebrun said her first goal as president is to get an enumeration of the organization's members completed, since the numbers will affect such things as funding and land to be obtained through the ongoing negotiations.

Then, it is to complete an agreement-in-principle and final agreement.

"I won't give a date on it, because people have heard dates so many times," she said. "We're just working as hard as we can on it."

The negotiations with the territorial and federal governments have been ongoing for 10 years.

Villebrun will start working full-time as president as of Dec. 1 when she begins a leave from her job as a human resources benefits officer with the GNWT's Department of Human Resources.

She has worked with the territorial government for 26 years.

She has also served on the Fort Smith Metis Council since 1998 and remains vice-president of that council.

Villebrun said she will bring her own style of leadership to her new role as Metis Nation president.

"I think first of all I would be a listener, but I'm very straightforward, very open and very honest," she said. "I really don't like beating around the bush. I like challenges and I like getting the work done."