Thank You Winnipeg

On April 27th, we welcomed 345 folks to Local to Global 2016 with Ellen Gabriel. Ellen Gabriel spoke passionately about how important it is for women to be part of the decision making, at the community and national level. The effects that continue to this day of the Residential Schools. And especially how colonialism and attitude have affected First Nations and that this is no longer acceptable. The early history of what women have contributed was acknowledged. It was a magical night, with performances by Mary Black and Dawn Lavand. Tina Keeper was welcoming and said exactly the right thing at the right time. The Seven Sisters Drumming closed the evening with beautiful music.

If you weren’t able to attend, check out our YouTube video of Ellen’s speech!

Thanks to all of our generous donors and supporters, we were able to raise close to $20,000! (Total figure to be finalized in the coming weeks.) These proceeds will be used to support women’s human rights, locally and globally at three charitable organizations:

• MATCH International Women’s Fund
  For projects led by Indigenous women
• Mohawk Language Custodian Association
  For the teaching and preservation of the Mohawk language
• Global Citizenship Scholarship Fund
  For students studying and working for international women’s rights at the University of Winnipeg, Global College.

Ellen made several resource recommendations throughout her speech. We marked these down, added her interviews as well as a few other pertinent resources on reconciliation to bring you the following list!

Reconciliation Resources

• Interview with Cheryl MacKenzie (APTN) on April 27th, 2016 edition of APTN InFocus
  Ellen Gabriel’s segment begins at the 13:47 minute mark:

• Part of Ellen’s presentation from April 27th, shown on May 4, 2016 edition of APTN InFocus
  Ellen Gabriel’s segment begins at the 18:00 minute mark

• Interview and blog with Rosanna Deerchild, CBC. “Reconciliation Can Not Happen Without Gender Equality”.

• The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers – Justice Murray Sinclair was recently appointed to Canada’s Senate.  A conversation between Sinclair and Shelagh Rogers is the concluding piece in a new book entitled In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth and Reconciliation. We hear part of that conversation this week on The Next Chapter.

Ellen Gabriel-Approved Literature

At the Woods’ Edge

A. Van den Hende/B. Gabriel bring us the story of Oka, available by ordering through the Mohawk Language Custodian Association.  Here’s what Lyle Stewart from Hour Magazine had to say about the book:
“In 1990, some Kanehsatຫe community members along with other natives, made a stand to protect their land from development. The result had repercussions from coast to coast and around the world. At the Woods Edge tells the story of turmoil that led up to the Crisis of 1990. Its an anthology of the settlement since first contact. To understand what happened in 1990, you must first read; At the Woods Edge.

The 400 page illustrated volume is the first book about the oral and written history of Kanehsatຫe written  Arlette Kawanatatie Van Den Hende, and Brenda Katlatont Gabriel Doxtator. Included, are photos and original illustrations by Katsitsakwas Ellen Gabriel. This book uses historical studies and traditional teachings to tell the story of the people of Kanehsatຫe. Its a must read! The 400 page history provides a scholarly, densely detailed and importantly native view of the 270 years of contact and conflict at Kanehsatຫe that culminated in the 1990 Oka Crisis.”

Sex and World Peace

Available from Amazon. Columbia University Press says the following:
“Sex and World Peace unsettles a variety of assumptions in political and security discourse, demonstrating that the security of women is a vital factor in the security of the state and its incidence of conflict and war. The authors compare micro-level gender violence and macro-level state peacefulness in global settings, supporting their findings with detailed analyses and color maps. Harnessing an immense amount of data, they call attention to discrepancies between national laws protecting women and the enforcement of those laws, and they note the adverse effects on state security of abnormal sex ratios favoring males, the practice of polygamy, and inequitable realities in family law, among other gendered aggressions.”

Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It’s Too Late

by James Robison, Jay W. Richards.

A New York Times best-seller.
To order and see more, click here.

This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades; An Anthology of Writing on the “Oka Crisis”

Edited by Leannie Simpson and Kiera L. Ladner.

You can get copies of the book from McNally Robinson Book Sellers, Grant Park Shopping Centre, or online.

Follow the IIWR-MB on Facebook and Twitter to stay in the loop on our future initiatives and events!