NWAC honours achievements.

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) chose four exceptional people to honour during the organization's annual general meeting held in Ottawa from Oct. 12 to 14, as this year's Jane Gottfriedson Awards were handed out.

Gottfriedson was a long time activist in British Columbia and a strong member of NWAC. She fought for the dignity and rights of all Aboriginal women and those who knew her remember her for her kindness, strength and mentorship.

The award is given both to honour Gottfriedson's memory, and to spotlight Aboriginal community members who have led in protecting the political and social rights of Aboriginal women.

One of this year's recipients was Gratia Bunnie, the disabled widow of Senator Samuel Bunnie who has been fighting to be allowed to stay in their matrimonial home at Sakimay First Nation with her nine-year-old granddaughter, Cianna. Bunnie was given the award in recognition of that fight.

The issue recently went to court and Sakimay First Nation's application was thrown out but it has since launched an appeal

Bunnie said she was startled not only by receiving the award but also by the standing ovation she was given. She said she doesn't regard her fight as a fight only for women.

"I don't look at it as standing up for women's rights. I think it's more an issue of nation and of membership. We as First Nations people we need to look at each other as members of a nation, not as members of separate First Nations, because divided we're weak.

"What Sakimay is really telling me is, because my legal spouse is deceased, I am no longer welcome here, despite the fact that this is where my children and my extended children's fathers are from."

Bunnie said her son is living in British Columbia in a house on Cooks reserve. All he had to be was First Nations, a status Indian.

"To me, I'm not only standing up for First Nations women. I think I'm standing up for widows, for widowers, their children and their grandchildren. They have the right to come home to their community, their heritage, their tradition.

"What keeps me in my place more or less is I have a daughter. Her spouse is a Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia, from a reserve called Shubenacadie reserve. They have a little girl who is a year old. Then my son has a spouse in B.C. who's T'sil' Kotin. They have three daughters together.

If anything were to happen to either my daughter or my son, it would be like me telling my son-in-law or my daughter-in-law, 'Go away. We don't want you.' That's not our tradition. That is not our custom," she said.

As a nation it doesn't make sense to splinter into small groups, she said.

"If in order for your children to have membership in your First Nation, both parents have to belong to that First Nation, you're going to eventually wipe your own band out. All I ever wanted from the start was the opportunity to transfer my membership from my own First Nation to my late husband's First Nation.

"Little did I know there was a huge gap in the law that fails to protect men, women, widows, widowers, their children and grandchildren. Now as mothers and grandmothers, we women have to find the strength to take up the fight to protect the rights of these innocent victims."

Another of this year's Jane Gottfriedson Award recipients was Dawn Harvard, who was recognized for the years she had dedicated to improving the lives of Aboriginal families.

In the mid 1990s, Harvard joined the board of directors of the Ontario Native Women's Association (ONWA) as a youth representative. She's remained involved in the association over the years, and now serves as the ONWA's president.

Harvard was the first recipient of the Trudeau Foundation Award in recognition of her work to improve the lives of Aboriginal families, and recently co-authored a parenting book with her mother, Jeanette Corbierre Lavelle, entitled Until Our Hearts Are on the Ground.

Alicia May LeGarde was also honoured with a Jane Gottfriedson Award.

LeGarde recently earned her bachelor of arts in nursing from Lakehead University and is currently employed at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Centre.

An exceptional student and a talented artist, the 23-year-old serves as a fine role model for other young First Nation people.

Rounding out this year's list of award winners is the only male recipient of the group.

Craig Benjamin was honoured for the many years he has dedicated to the fight for Aboriginal rights.

Through his work with Amnesty International, he helped spearhead the organization's research project focusing on the high numbers of Aboriginal women in Canada that have gone missing or have been murdered, and continues to work closely both with Amnesty International and with NWAC.

By Ann Harvey

Windspeaker Writer

OTTAWA