Nomination a win in itself, say the two women recognized

A pair of Métis women from Saskatoon was among those nominated for that city’s YWCA Women of Distinction Awards.

Louise Oelke, the executive director of the four Central Urban Métis Federation Incorporated shelters in Saskatoon, was nominated in the Health and Wellness category, while Lisa Wilson, a longtime promoter of Métis heritage and culture who works as a director at Saskatoon’s Gabriel Dumont Institute, was nominated in the Arts, Culture and/or Heritage category.

Neither Oelke nor Wilson, however, was named the over-all winner in their respective categories.

“It’s really nice just to be nominated,” Oelke said. “There’re so many excellent women out there.”

About 10 family members and friends attended the May 26 award banquet with Oelke. The 60-year-old felt it was important that her granddaughters, aged 14 and 16, showed up for the event.

“I like to instil in them how good it is to give back to the community,” she said, adding she frequently goes beyond normal hours at work and often volunteers for events, even if it means giving up her holidays.

Oelke, who was born in the northern Saskatchewan community of Ile-a-la-Crosse, has been volunteering for various organizations for 40 years now, ever since she moved to Saskatoon.

“I get the satisfaction of meeting so many different people,” she said. “I get to know a lot of people in the community and that’s how you get things done.”

In her current job, Oelke helps to build bridges between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and helps reduce inter-generational dysfunction on youth.

Over the years her work has included improving Aboriginal health and social programs in the city. Other projects she has worked on include income/sobriety-based housing developments, reuniting members from broken families, establishing recovery/addiction programs and creating safety programs for women.

Oelke said being nominated for a YWCA Women of Distinction Award indicates she is making a difference.
“The fact (I was nominated) does recognize that I am on the right path,” she said.

As for Wilson, she too considered it a huge honour to be a nominee.
“I think being nominated was the award in itself,” she said.

Wilson, 45, was thrilled she now has in her possession the paperwork which was completed in order to nominate her.

“They gave me the nomination package,” she said, which included three letters of praise. “Those letters were very affirming. Now whenever I’m having a bad day I get those letters out and read them.”

Wilson has worked as a program director at Saskatoon’s Gabriel Dumont Institute for almost 14 years. The facility is a provincial Métis post-secondary education centre, which offers technical upgrading for students and also serves as an employment and training centre.

As for her volunteer efforts, Wilson helps out with the Saskatchewan Writers Guild and the Aboriginal Writers’ Festival, working to raise the status of Aboriginal writers throughout Saskatchewan.
In 2010 she spearheaded a six-month membership drive for the SWG, bringing in 135 new members. Of those, 45 were Aboriginal.

“That was a substantial increase to the Aboriginal members we had before,” said Wilson, adding the number of members previously had not been separated into those who were Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal.

As for her future plans, Wilson is keen to establish an Aboriginal writers’ circle, which will advocate and support both new and budding writers.

She recently found out her first book, a collection of fictional short stories titled Just Pretending, will be published in the spring of 2013.

This is the 30th for Saskatoon’s YMCA Women of Distinction gala.