Aboriginal - Girls Action Foundation

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4 About the project: Indigenous Young Women: Speaking Our Truths, Building Our Strengths This publication is part of a larger collaborative project called Indigenous Young Women: Speaking Our Truths, Building Our Strengths. A partnership between the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and Girls Action Foundation, this project focuses on Indigenous young women’s leadership, empowerment, solidarity-building, and ending violence. The project is also lead by a national peer Advisory of ten Indigenous young women from all across Canada, and seeks to meet young women where they are at; emphasizing the reality that youth ideas matter and that youth are experts in their own right! Indigenous women’s strength has always existed in Indigenous communities, and it continues to grow. The project consists of a four-day national gathering of Indigenous young women, Elders, and mentors in November 2011, this publication, a guide for young women’s organizing, Elder and peer mentorship, and ten community actions lead by Indigenous young women in different parts of Canada.
What we have learned about Indigenous women’s leadership from YOUTH! An Introduction by The Native Youth Sexual Health Network For us at the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN), this project started out with a challenge: get the word out to as many young Indigenous women across Canada as possible in less than 2 months to notify them about a creative essay contest. The question posed to these women; “What does Aboriginal women’s leadership mean to you? What does it look like?” This came from our partnership with the Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Circle as part of Women’s Worlds 2011 – a global gathering of women hosted in Ottawa in July 2011. The Circle wanted to ensure the meaningful and vocal participation of Indigenous young women and give space and opportunity for this to happen, and approached us at NYSHN to facilitate this in ways that were by and for Indigenous youth. We wanted to make sure that by the word “leadership” we didn’t just mean “people in elected, political positions” or really anything that was only so-called “official” or in organizations or institutions. We asked people to think about what it means to them personally – in their lives, their communities, their nations, or wherever they are. We also wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just the “written” word that was considered; we asked people to tell us their stories in art, photography, video, song, and a whole lot more! It is also important for us that by “women” we are speaking to ALL the women in our communities – whether we are trans, Two Spirited, gender non-conforming – and that we have the right to identify OURSELVES. The response we received was overwhelming. Over 100 submissions and counting! Clearly we couldn’t let all of this brilliance sit in our mail boxes, so we asked all the women who submitted - do you want to be published? Again, it was an overwhelmingly positive response that these voices NEED to be heard on all levels. So before anything else is said, we really want to honour and acknowledge ALL of the young people who submitted to the original creative essay contest. These essays were 5
Page 1 and 2: EDITED BY THE NATIVE YOUTH SEXUAL H
Page 3: Table of Contents About the project
Page 7 and 8: Sparks of leadership An Introductio
Page 9 and 10: My goal is to reach other young adu
Page 11 and 12: she accomplished! Such as, being th
Page 13 and 14: And it is because she taught me to
Page 15 and 16: By Binaeshee-Quae Couchie-Nabigon T
Page 17 and 18: Binaeshee-Quae Couchie-Nabigon 17
Page 19 and 20: of living on a northern reserve. Th
Page 21 and 22: By Danielle Michelle Morrisseau You
Page 23 and 24: for just about anybody. Knowing the
Page 25 and 26: Inuk has helped inspire me to becom
Page 27 and 28: There is water under the bridge for
Page 29 and 30: When we try to speak our minds we a
Page 31 and 32: These are family, friends, colleagu
Page 33 and 34: the ‘sixties scoop,’ along with
Page 35 and 36: By Jasmine Orchid Anderson Aborigin
Page 37 and 38: misconduct. My fellow members of Th
Page 39 and 40: the old days, and slowly our leader
Page 41 and 42: By Katie Jo Rabbit It all started w
Page 43 and 44: To Heal… To sit and for the mind
Page 45 and 46: By Killa Mitchell-Atencio - Age: 21
Page 47 and 48: Her music, passion and strength res
Page 49 and 50: nature. The rain continues to beat
Page 51 and 52: young woman should be the master of
Page 53 and 54: victims of racism, sexism, and viol
Page 55 and 56:
Sky Woman; A Symbol, an Inspiration
Page 57 and 58:
By Mercedes Donald Aboriginal women
Page 59 and 60:
By Mikayla Cartwright Even the tall
Page 61 and 62:
we are, sometimes it just takes a b
Page 63 and 64:
was awarded 1993 Woman of the Year
Page 65 and 66:
Literature Cited Hume, Stephen. “
Page 67 and 68:
I believe in myself, and more impor
Page 69 and 70:
Lead-HER-ship By Naomi Sayers Leade
Page 71 and 72:
protection when it comes to the mat
Page 73 and 74:
Singers. It was an enlightening exp
Page 75 and 76:
War Shirt Woman: Joane Cardinal-Sch
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By Shauna Ponask Aboriginal women
Page 79 and 80:
Bill C-3 is a great example of how
Page 81 and 82:
allow the next born to continue and
Page 83 and 84:
By Stephanie Wood Aboriginal women
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also a radiant mother. Pursuing wha
Page 87 and 88:
Film: “Caught Between Worlds” D
Page 89 and 90:
grandchildren what strength and det
Page 91 and 92:
By Carli Harris The name of my pain
Page 94:
About the Organizations The Native
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