Edmonton hosts women's summit

News in Brief

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Some 65 Aboriginal women from around Alberta came together at Edmonton's Canadian Native Friendship Centre for an Aboriginal Women's Summit last month. They dealt with their feeling that Aboriginal women are being bypassed and ignored, at the same time as they are struggling to survive in a racially biased society. The format of the summit consisted of plenary sessions in the morning, followed by afternoon and evening workshops to come up with a strategy to change the present system of funding Aboriginal organizations, which are faced with ever-steeper cuts. "It is now time to take hold of the power we have and have always had," said Muriel Stanley Venne, president and founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, which put on the summit. Resolutions called for unified action on a number of fronts, and for the participants to follow up on initiatives from the Beijing (China) Women's Conference and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report. (RJH)