Indigenous women’s ‘firsts’ consumes university student

What was supposed to have been an easy assignment for Sally Simpson turned into a labour of love and an appreciation of how hard Aboriginal women have had to work – and continue to work – to break into a European-dominated North American society.
In 2012, Simpson, a student at Wilfred Laurier University and enrolled in an Indigenous Women’s course, was working on a class project to honour Aboriginal women.

“I thought, ‘Okay, I will go on the Internet and I’ll find the top 10 first Indigenous females and I’ll make a collage, hopefully their pictures will be on there, too. This will be an easy project. I didn’t find the top 10 Indigenous women to mark a first in Canada. I didn’t find any such list at all,” she said in an email interview.
Undaunted, Simpson decided to make her own list.

“It quickly became a very tedious task. It consumed me. I worked on it day and night,” she said.

The result two years later is a list that numbers 107 and continues to grow. Initially, Simpson did Internet and library searches and worked closely with the librarian at the Woodland Culture Centre in Brantford, Ont.  But once her efforts became public, people began seeking her out with their own contributions for her list.

The list begins with Nahnebahwequay (Catherine Sutton), of the Mississauga First Nation, who travelled to England in 1860 and successfully petitioned Queen Victoria to intervene in a land claim dispute near Owen Sound, Ont. The next first isn’t until half a century later when in 1914 Mohawk woman Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture became a registered nurse. After 1937, with Dr. Elsie Charles Basque, of the Mi’kmaw, as the first licensed teacher to teach in a non-Indigenous school, firsts are fairly regular and range from Elsie Knott, of the Ojibwe, as elected chief of a First Nation (Curve Lake) in 1954 to Marji Pratt-Turo (Carla Blakey) as the runway model in New York City in 1963 to Dr. Alis Kennedy, a Metis, who became a commercial pilot in 1976 to Brenda Butterworth-Carr, of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in, who in 2013 became an RCMP Chief Superintendent.

Simpson says compiling the list made her aware of the deeper struggles women endured to achieve their goals.

“I’ve been learning a lot about systemic discrimination. When I saw the dates of when these women accomplished their goals and then I compared it to European women, it became glaringly obvious,” she said.

Those systemic barriers continue today, says Dr. Shauneen Peet, an associate professor in Aboriginal Education at the University of Regina, who points to the two per cent cap in government funding for First Nations’ post-secondary education as a factor.
And when women do manage that hurdle, they tend to enter the more women-dominated professions, such as teachers and social workers. Bridging programs are needed to encourage women to consider more diverse fields.

But trailblazing by Indigenous women does continue and the newest addition to Simpson’s list could be Jennifer Campeau, who made history in June when a Saskatchewan Party Cabinet shuffle saw her named minister of central services and minister responsible for Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation.

“She’s been very consistent, and she’s very grounded, and she has this very solid personality,” said Peet, of the Yellow Quill First Nation member.  “I really want to commend her for her determination and for being very, very forward thinking.”

As long as Campeau continues to avoid scandals and controversy, her future as a politician is bright, says Peet, who notes that women are judged more harshly than their male counterparts when breaking new ground and some of the harshest criticism comes from women.

“As Indigenous women we have to strongly consider how do we get behind our women leaders and provide the kind of support that is really required,” she said. Specifically referring to Campeau, Peet added, “These are still predominantly male-dominated fields and in her case, it’s a predominantly white field.”

Peet is a member of Equal Voices, a provincial and national non-partisan group that supports women in politics and encourages girls and young women to aspire to these roles.

“We have to be very strategic about the stories we tell about one another to counter the perceptions,” she said.

The Indigenous community can also judge its women harshly, says Peet.

“We’ve inherited social traumas that really lead to forms of lateral oppressions in our own communities. We have to name it and have to say this too is a product of our colonial past and it needs to be corrected. We can’t tolerate gossip. We must not tolerate women bashing in any forms. We have to lift one another up,” she said.

“Masculine hegemony,” she adds, has led to some male leaders treating women dismissively, silencing and excluding young women leaders, and treating women’s voices as a threat to male authority on the reserve.

Peet says that the Assembly of First Nations is an example of where colonialism has had an impact. While half of the eight contenders for the 2012 election for the National Chief were women, Pam Palmater was a distant second to Shawn Atleo, who has since stepped down.

“We’ve experienced a form of colonization which has meant for many folks we’ve also adopted those dominant ideas about gender and that’s a limiting factor for us,” said Peet. “Our women were very, very powerful (and) have always been present in our communities, but too often the gaze is shifted to the masculine.”

While each woman has her own reason for accomplishing what she did, Simpson sees the women on her list as sharing courage, determination and strength.

Peet says self-confidence, resiliency, and the ability to find “a balance between strength on the one side and the sense of care. For many of the women I know… they really want social change” are also driving characteristics.

Simpson is encouraged by these strong women of the past and what that means for the future.

“I think Indigenous women are Canada’s beacon for hope and bringing cultures together.  That means a lot of responsibility, but I think they are up for it,” she said.

“We have to keep our eyes on some of these young women that are out there. They are doing some amazing and powerful things. They are exceedingly bright and they are exceedingly influential… along the way they’ve learned that their voices matter,” said Peet. “It’s an exciting time.”

Both Simpson and Peet are mothers of daughters. When Simpson’s daughter, who she refers to as “my greatest accomplishment and sense of pride and hope” started college, so did Simpson. In her first term in university, Simpson committed to spending a year in China teaching English. That is where she is now.

“I’m a mother of two daughters and I’m quite impressed in their confidence and leadership and in the work they’re doing,” said Peet.