Rosenberg Fund honors memory of Native activist

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One Ojibway-Potawatami woman's experience of racism and oppression is leading to delightful opportunities for Aboriginal children in Canada.

"Mary Pitawanakwat had a presence about her, there was an inner power that she had," said Robert Meeropol, executive director of the Rosenberg Fund for Children (RFC). "There was something very special about her."

The Mary Pitawanakwat Fund (MPF) of the Rosenberg Fund for Children was initiated in 1998 after Pitawanakwat passed away in 1995. The fund in her name honors the 10 year personal and legal battle she endured to address the racial discrimination she experienced while working for the federal secretary of state in Regina.

"Mary passed on before seeing the fund iniated. She would be very happy with the fund," said Bob Hughes, Mary's partner. "She did a lot of work throughout the States and Canada for concern about the effects of racism and discrimination upon children."

Hughes continues the fight against racism as a member of the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism.

For seven years Pitawanakwat worked for the secretary of state office as a part of the federal government's first action program for Aboriginal people. In 1984, she filed a complaint of racial and sexual harrassment in the workplace with the federal Canadian Human Rights Commission. Two years later she was fired from her position for alleged incompetence.

During the long legal battle, the single mother of two at times resorted to welfare to support her family, all the while struggling with breast cancer.

"She wrote a letter to the RFC and her children received grants," said Hughes. "She had applied at her lowest ebb. She was worried that her kids were suffering through her battle."

The RFC is an United States-based organization that supports activists working for causes of peace, justice, environmental protection and equal rights. It provides for the educational and emotional needs of children whose parents are activists and who are struggling to adequately care for them.

When Pitawanakwat applied for the grants, the RFC was not providing funding outside of the US.

"We looked at her situation and we had really been wanting to reach out to the Aboriginal population, so we thought what better way than to make a grant that sets an example,"said Meeropol. "So that people see the kinds of things we do and it might encourage other Indigenous people to apply and so we made an exception."

In 1984 Pitawanakwat won her legal struggle and, just weeks before her death in 1995, she returned to the RFC to express her gratitude for the grants. She presented the RFC with a donation of $1,000.

"I guess it was Mary's gift back to us, as sort of by way of a thank you, and Mary to this day is the only one who has ever done that," said Meeropol.

In the spring of 1998, Meeropol came to Toronto to do a fund-raising concert for the RFC and realized that leaving the money raised in Canada in a fund in Mary's name was appropriate.

"I think it is only natural that the Mary Pitawanakwat Fund (MPF) has evolved this way and I feel totally comfortable with it," said Meeropol.

The MPF of the RFC awarded its first grant in November 1999 to the 12-year-old daughter of an Aboriginal environmental activist who has been arrested and attacked for his work. He has been fighting against a Hydro-Quebec project that could flood tribal lands. The $1000 grant will allow his daughter to attend a traditional medicines training program.

"We provide funding for Aboriginal families," said Naomi Binder Wall, co-ordinator of the MPF in Toronto. "We want to reach out to Aboriginal organizations so that families in need can apply to receive grants for the children."

"I remember times when we had to go to the food bank. We weren't able to do much for fun to get our minds off the stress," said Robyn Pitawanakwat, Mary's daughter. "That is what the fund is for, to help the kids have an outlet for a normal life and so I know my mom would appreciate the fund beig in her name."

For more information or to apply to the MPF of the RFC call 1-416-163-2017 in Toronto.