Conference prepares women for economic success

"As nurturers and caregivers Aboriginal women are the back-bone of a community, so when the women are supported, the whole community benefits," said Judy White, the facilitator and steering committee chair of the third Annual Aboriginal Women's Conference held in St. John's Newfoundland from March 12 to 14.
The theme of this year's conference was 'The Path to Economic Prosperity.' It focused on the value of leading more Aboriginal women to greater economic success.
The conference was geared towards Newfoundland's Innu, Inuit, Métis and Miq'Maq women and was a joint initiative between the Women's Policy Office and a steering committee of seven women from Aboriginal groups across the province.
Conference organizers received support from the Women's Policy Office, from the Honourable Joan Burke, Minister of the Status of Women who provided funding and administrative support for the Aboriginal women planning the conference.
"We wanted to give Aboriginal women in the province a forum where they can speak about issues that are relevant to Aboriginal women," White said. "The provincial government here is doing a lot of work on gender-based analysis and promoting women's rights. But the Aboriginal women wanted a specific forum and a focus on Aboriginal women because obviously there are distinctions and distinct differences and uniqueness when you compare Aboriginal women to non-Aboriginal women."
The conference brought together forty Aboriginal women from across the province along with representatives from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Aboriginal governments, community groups and business leaders.
It provided participants with a forum to come together, voice their concerns, and listen to presenters speak about economic development for women.
"This year there were several recommendations made by various Aboriginal women. They've made some recommendations to government, both provincial and Aboriginal governments, in respect with how to deal with issues around economic development for Aboriginal women," said White.
One of the issues talked about was that Aboriginal women need support in the sense of voluntary administration, a need to be able to do it our own way, White added.
"We need the governments to understand that there has to be a special emphasis and a special focus for Aboriginal women. Before the government implements any kind of programming or policies, (delegates) felt that there should be a consultation mechanism for Aboriginal women so that they get input on the specific policy or program that's being developed by government at that time."
"The other thing, I pointed out earlier, is that we want to stress to both governments, the provincial and the Aboriginal governments, is that women are the backbones of the community and if you provide supports to women, you're actually providing supports to the community. So those were some of the messages that the delegates wanted to get out loud and clear."
The guest speaker at the conference was the Honourable Patty Pottle, an Inuit woman and now Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.
"She was just appointed in November, so we were really excited to have her as the very first Aboriginal women minister in our province," White said. "In the last three years we've seen Aboriginal women grow.
I think that was evident in having our guest speaker being an Aboriginal women who was now the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador."
"The opportunities and possibilities for Aboriginal women are growing every year," said Pottle about the annual conference in a press release. "By meeting and discussing ideas and issues that concern us as Aboriginal women, we will be on the path to more fulfilled and richer lives."
The idea for the conference came about after a tour of the north coast of Labrador by the Honourable Danny Williams, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador and Minister Burke in 2004, when they saw the complexity and diversity of the issues facing Aboriginal women.
"A big part of the conference is a cultural component because there's six unique groups. We all share a part of our culture and during the lunch hours we have 'Real Women, Real Stories', and various women from the different groups would give a story about how being a women in this community is," White said. As another part of the cultural component, each year one nation - either Innu, Inuit, Métis, or Miq'maq - will bring a part of their culture to share with other conference participants. "This year it was the Inuit culture that we focused on. We looked at their gains and their ceremonies. So we learned a bit about that."
Every morning of the conference began with a cultural ceremony, followed with comments from speakers. Towards the end of the day women came together as a group to voice their concerns.
"On the very last day we took a couple of hours and each group went to their respective nation, than we further took the recommendations that we had as a group to see how that would specifically apply for us because we're all with the view that it's not one size fits all as Aboriginal women: Innu, Inuit, Métis, Miq'maq. We all have different priorities and different needs, so we further took it to apply to our own respective nations," she said.
White is optimistic that another conference will be held next year.
"I think we'd certainly be looking at another conference next year, we're certainly recommending it from an Aboriginal women's perspective. I guess that remains to be left to the government to fund," she said.
The Williams Government has advanced a number of recommendations made at the previous conferences. It was announced in the 2007 Budget that funding for violence prevention grants to Aboriginal communities was doubled to $200,000 annually and funding for the annual conference was increased from $30,000 to $60,000 annually.