b"LIFELONG LEADERSHIPD awn Lavell-Harvard has been President of ONWA for 18 years, but shes been connected her whole life. While she joined the board in 1994 as a youth director, Lavell-Harvard reminds us that her mother, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, was one of the founding board members, so she has been attending board meetings literally since her birthI was carried in my moms arms.Preparing to move on from the presidency, a position she has held since 2003, Lavell-Harvard looks back on ONWAs history of giving a voice to Indigenous women and their families. Founded in 1971 to support the First Nations women who challenged the sections of the Indian Act that strippedWe need to ensure that a voice for women and their children of Indian status if they married non-Indigenous men, ONWA continues to support and empowerIndigenous women is maintained. Indigenous women through the genera-tions. Lavell-Harvard believes that, just as my mom raised me to fight for justice forWe don't speak for Indigenous women, our women, its time to pass the torch.A member of the Wiikwemkoong Firstbut we create space for Indigenous Nation, Lavell-Harvard holds a PhD in Education, was the first Indigenous Trudeau scholar, and is currently thewomen to speak for themselvesDirector of the First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University. With three daughters of her own, Lavell-Harvard hasDawn Lavell-Harvard, ONWApublished several books focusing on the strength and power of Indigenous women. As the daughter of one of ONWAs founders and past presidents, in a sense Lavell-Harvard was born to her lifes work .If you look at it, when my mom and those original women founded ONWAwomen like Edith McLeod, Millie Flamandit was originally created toAprovide a voice for Indigenous women at the Supreme Court. They had to doCongratulations on yourraffles and bake sales to get themselves50 thanniversary ONWA!to Ottawa, says Lavell-Harvard, adding that those speaking for the National andWe are #AeconProud to continueProvincial Indian Brotherhoods, whoto partner with Indigenouswere called to speak against their owncommunities on the developmentwomen, had all their expenses paid.of industry-leading infrastructureLavell-Harvard explains that theseand employment opportunitieswomen found themselves in oppositionfor Indigenous Peoples.not only to the government, but also to their own leadership who worried that non-Indigenous men might end up as full-status residents on reserves, or that their own non-Indigenous wives wouldaecon.com/indigenous-relations lose status. Ontario Native Womens Association33"