NWAC receives increase

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The federal government announced Aug. 6 that the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) will receive $457,000 for the coming fiscal year an increase of approximately $100,000 over last year.

The increase is partially due to Bill C-31, an amendment to the Indian Act designed to remove discrimination against Indian women who lost band membership by marrying non-Indian men.

Newly-elected NWAC president Donna Weaselchild applauds the additional funding and says that some Indian women who have been reinstated have run into problems. The funding will permit the association to do case studies on 25 women in each province to see how reinstatement has affected them.

Some of these women have been welcomed back to their reserve, "but only on general band membership status," says Weaselchild. This does not entitle them to land. In the area of education, Bill C-31 women are now eligible to return to school, but are finding it impossible because the education budgets have already been spent.

"Child sexual abuse is another key area for public education," says Weaselchild. NWAC will work with Inui and Indian nurses at local levels to develop and distribute fact sheets. "The fact sheets will be very general. We don't want to start pointing fingers at specific people," says Weaselchild.