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First woman in legislature looks back

Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 21/06) - Better housing, education and health care were big issues for Lena Pedersen when elected to the Northwest Territories Council back in 1970.

Pedersen was both the first woman and the first Inuit woman to hold a seat in the Territories' decision-making council.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Lena Pedersen, the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1970 (then referred to as the Northwest Territories Council), gets a drink poured by Great Slave MLA Bill Braden at the Seniors Spring Tea Thursday afternoon held in the Great Hall. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo


"I got a lot of attention from the press," recalls Pedersen, adding that social issues rather than basking in "firsts" was her priority.

"Coming from the camp life to a community life dealing with social issues was very important."

And one of Pedersen's first accomplishments was getting the Kitikmeot Boarding Home for out-of-town patients to stay when visiting Yellowknife for medical attention.

Sitting on the council from 1970 to 1975, Pedersen served as Housing Corporation Board Chair and chaired the 1972/73 Special Education Report, another issue close to her heart.

"Back then we didn't have any schools really, just one-room buildings with Grades 1 to 5 altogether," she said. "So getting schools built in the communities was really important."

Born in Greenland in 1940, Pedersen moved to the Northwest Territories in 1959 where she lived in Coppermine (now Kugluktuk), Pangnirtung and Rae (now Behchoko). She spent four years in Cape Dorset working for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative before returning to Coppermine to work for CBC Radio prior to being elected as representative of the Central Arctic.

Her constituency included Pelly Bay (Kugaaruk), Spence Bay (Taloyoak), Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, Bathurst Inlet (Kinnguak), Bay Chimo, Coppermine and Holman (Ulukhaktok).

Now a resident of Yellowknife, Pedersen attended Thursday afternoon's Seniors Spring Tea at the Legislative Assembly.

Pedersen proudly showed off a photograph of herself among her 15 male colleagues that hangs on the wall outside the Great Hall.

"There I am, with 15 men," she said, pointing to the picture with a laugh.

So what's the biggest difference between then and now?

"There were healthy people in the North in that time and there's so many health issues today, it's amazing," she said. "FASD (fetal alcohol syndrome disorder) is a big one now and it's something that's totally preventable."