Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Friday, February 19, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT needs more women leaders.

That was the message following the three-day Joining the Circle Northern women's leadership conference held in Yellowknife last week. One hundred and sixty women, from nearly every NWT community attended the conference hosted by the NWT Status of Women Council and the Native Women's Association of the NWT.

Recently, the number of female candidates being elected to political office in the territory has dropped.

Of the 21 women who ran in October's municipal election, only seven were elected.

However, 27 per cent of the candidates were female, up from the previous high of 19.5 per cent in 2003.

Despite the increase in the number of women running, Sharon Thomas, executive director of the Status of Women Council, said more work needs to be done.

"We only have two women MLAs and none in cabinet," she said.

With the defeat of Diana Ehman in her race to be re-elected as Hay River's mayor, the NWT only has one female mayor remaining, Fort Providence's Tina Gargan.

Thomas said women might not know how to run an effective campaign, and that could be contributing to the reduction in female elected leaders.

In an effort to address that, one of the weekend's workshops was on how to run an election campaign.

Three women in the workshop acted as candidates and the rest formed their campaign teams. That workshop culminated in a mock election - complete with campaign and acceptance speeches - at the conference dinner Saturday night.

Other events gave the participants the opportunity to speak out about concerns in their communities, economic and social equality and development issues.

Thomas said there are benefits to having more women elected to positions of power.

"If we had more women (in politics) then we would have our issues put on the table," she said.

"For example child care, which has been on the table for decades and it has not moved forward."

Denyse Nadon-Holder, executive director of the Native Women's Association, said she was happy to see so many women turn out last weekend.

"It was awesome," she said. "It was very powerful to see all women leaders get together All these women have a cause, have a purpose."

Nadon-Holder said the conference helped both her organization and the Status of Women Council raise their profile in the North.

"It reminded us of why we do what we do," Nadon-Holder said.

Women spoke about violence, discrimination and issues affecting the communities. Nadon-Holder praised two women from Wrigley for speaking out.

"It was very courageous for those two young women to stand up," she said. "I do believe that those two women did realize they got the support they needed."

Nadon-Holder said the conference was empowering.

Agnes Kuptana, from Ulukhaktok/Holman, said she feels like the smaller communities don't get enough resources for helping women.

"It's like no one out there cares," she said.

She said there are things she learned at the conference that she is looking forward to bringing back to her community.

"Healing circles for one," she said. "Women groups, groups for youths and elders."

Janine Olifie, also of Ulukhaktok, said she would have liked having the seminars come to her community.

But Olifie said that she's looking forward to bringing her new leadership skills home to Ulukhaktok.

"Everyone in Holman is so shy to talk," she said.

But as more women become strong leaders in their communities Thomas said that timidity would diminish.

"Once there are role models it will definitely lead to more encouragement for women to take that leadership role," she said.

Thomas added political leadership is not the only role available to women wanting to be leaders. Volunteer groups, recreation co-ordinators and coaching are all areas where women are needed as role models.

Thomas said she hopes similar conferences can be held more regularly. She said one was hosted in Yellowknife about a decade ago.

"Certainly every three years, it would be nice to have one every year," she said.