Professional women come together to support each other

Aboriginal women working in the business and professional sectors are recognizing the need to come together to hash out ideas, stories, and personal experiences to make for a better working community, all the while holding a “degree in one hand and a feather in the other,” said business consultant Marie Delorme.

Delorme, CEO of power house company The Imagination Group, spoke at a networking event in Calgary, hosted by the city’s Aboriginal Friendship Centre, that was geared specifically to Aboriginal women in business and professional positions, whether starters in entrepreneurship or long time contributors to the urban community.

Paula Smith, AFCC Cultural program coordinator, suggested that this kind of networking is imperative among Aboriginal women to reconnect with the values in which the Aboriginal way of life has been based upon for many years, and to use them on a day-to-day basis in a “non-competitive environment.”

“It’s important that we repatriate our history from which we were developed from, so we can repatriate our original principles and values: love, kindness, generosity, honour and respect- our way of life, to assist our people by bringing that balance in todays society,” said Smith.

By creating a dialogue to hear stories from one business professional to another, is a way of honouring one another as women, said Smith. Traditionally Aboriginal people are not a written people, so stories that have been told orally carried a meaning, so the opportunity for Aboriginal women to come together should be utilized for the greater good.

Grey Eagle Casino accountant Angeline Joe contributes to this sense of acknowledgment by pointing out that it’s key to share one another’s life journeys which in turn inspire and give strength to endure hardships and overcome challenges. This networking, she said, is “to make us happier and healthier in building our communities together.”

Events that encourage the business and professional women are the “seeds that need planting to focus positive energy on the good work that is being done in this society,” said Smith.

Acclaimed actress Wilma Pelly, who also spoke at the event, believes that networking among the women can help give strength to business terms.  She gives an example of the term ‘idea protection,’ by explaining that “we have our ideas stolen, what we came up with, which we have been doing for years, we have to know what has to be done to not get (product) names repeated by someone else.”

Aboriginal professional women are the “center of our home,” said Smith, and the will to mentor others is something all women are able to give.  “We’ve built something for ourselves, we’ve weathered the storm, like buffalo walking in from a storm, we have weathered racism and barriers. It’s not just being able to get that degree, it’s much more than that.”

Photo caption: (From left) Paula Smith AFCC cultural programs coordinator, Carol Mason AFCC executive director, Sandra Sutter AFCC Board of Directors president, Marie Delorme, Deni Paquette AFCC Board of Directors treasurer, and actress Wilma Pelly AFCC Elder.