b'SHE IS INDIGENOUSREDEFININGI N D I G E N O U S W O M E N By Matthew BradfordA social media campaign aims to shine a positive light on the narrative surrounding the countrys Indigenous womenA highlighting these women and their accomplishments, goals, national campaign is leveraging the might of online media to raise the profile of Indigenous women.talents, and all of the wonderfulness that define them. We knew it Entitled She is Indigenous, the initiative uses onlinewas time for a change, and we wanted to help lead the way.videos, stories and social media messaging to honour the everyday contributions and achievements of women withinShe is Indigenous is a campaign designed to be shared. It lives First Nations, Inuit and Mtis communities, as well as educateonline on the She is Indigenous dedicated website and on its non-Indigenous Canadians on their collective histories.Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, as well as through the use of the #EndViolenceWithRespect hashtag. Social media The campaign is spearheaded by Tamsin Fitzgerald, senior policyhas always been something thats interested me. Theres a sense analyst at Women of the Mtis Nation, who launched the initia- of freedom with it, you can have fun with it, and it connects a tive in June 2019 with support from Indigenous groups and part- lot of people that you ordinarily wouldnt get to connect with, ners throughout the country. Among them are ONWA and thesays Fitzgerald.Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, Assembly of First Nations. The campaign launched with nine biographical videos filmed in partnership with Spruce Creative, an Indigenous-owned The concept for She is Indigenous came out of discussions withmarketing firm out of Ottawa. The documentaries feature Indigenous organizations that wanted to address the issue ofIndigenous women in First Nations, Inuit and Mtis communities violence against Indigenous women and girls but do so withacross Canada who were nominated by their friends, family or a more positive narrative than campaigns in the past, saysco-workers. What was really exciting about this project in the Fitzgerald. We thought the best approach to this kind of campaign would be to reduce these incidents of violence by Ontario Native Womens Association41'