b'HISTORICAL OVERVIEWFINDING OUR VOICERemembering the history of Indigenous womens advocacy in Canada By Sarah McPherson,Deidre Rowe Brown, Ingrid GreenFinding Our Voice is a report developed by ONWA in 2023 for AM Digital, a London-based archival publishing company, about the development and foundation of the Ontario Native Womens Association and key work done in the 1980s. The following is a reviewed edition of that report, focusing on the Indigenous womens feminism movement as a whole.T he Indigenous womens movement began to gain trac- Still from Courtney Montours film Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again.tion in Canada in the late 1960s with the recognition that the Indigenous and womens rights movements of the era did not sufficiently address the concernsConference was held in 1968. Status, non-Status, Inuit and Mtis and needs of Indigenous women. While these movements shareddelegates attended from across the country. Representatives from common goals, Indigenous women also faced discrimination andCanadas Royal Commission on the Status of Women were also in challenges not shared by non-Indigenous women or Indigenousattendance to hear Indigenous womens concerns. According to men. Needing to make their voices heard, Indigenous womenAnne Marie DiLellas 1989 masters thesis on the Regina Native began to organize on and off reserves to address their specificWomens Group, the goal of the conference was to provide an social and legal concerns.opportunity for Native women to express their concerns and mutual interests and to endeavour to define their goals for a One such concern was Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act,better future in their communities. Throughout the conference, which outlined the discriminatory removal of status and treatydelegates developed recommendations on a variety of issues, rights upon marriage of status-carrying Indigenous women toincluding housing, health, education, legal rights, employment non-Indigenous men. This inclusion also meant that while status- and community development. carrying Indigenous men could pass along their status and treatyBy the 1970s, there was an increasing call for Indigenous women rights to their spouses and children, status-carrying Indigenousto make a tactical shift from advocacy to activism in shining light women could not. on the concerns that affected them most. In 1970, the Royal After the death of her clan sister in 1966, attributed to the stressfulCommission found that Section 12(1)(b) discriminated on the impact of losing her rights due to Section 12(1)(b), Mary Two-Axebasis of sex and recommended changes to ensure that Indigenous Earley of Kahnaw:ke founded Equal Rights for Indian Women.women and men could enjoy the same rights and privileges as The group wrote letters, gave speeches and presented submissionsother Canadians in matters of marriage and property. That same to government task forces and the Royal Commission on the Statusyear, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell from Ontario filed a lawsuit against of Women. At the same time, Jenny Margetts, Nellie Carlson andthe federal government, arguing that the Indian Act discrimin-Kathleen Steinhauer were also organizing around the issue inated based on race and sex, which contravened the Canadian Bill Western Canada. of Rights.Often considered the event that launched the IndigenousThe first National Native Womens Conference was held in May womens movement in Canada, the first Alberta Native Womensof 1971 in Edmonton, Alta., and was attended by 160 delegates from across Canada. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the formation of a national Indigenous womens association that would unite the voices of Status, non-Status and Mtis women to advocate for change in the social and legal position of Indigenous women and their communities. A national steering committee was created at the conference to study the organization of such an association and draft a constitution. A resolution was also passed to establish a second steering committee to study Section 12(1)(b); however, by the next conference in 1972, opposition to challenging the legislation had increased significantly among Indigenous women, and the issue was blocked from the agenda. As a result, they founded an independent group called Indigenous Rights for Indigenous Women (IRIW). For over three decades, Mary Two-Axe Earley and Jenny Margetts at NACthey and other like-minded Indigenous women continued to lobby Meeting, March 1977. Credit: Canadian Womensprovincially, nationally and internationally for the reinstatement of Movement Archives, University of Ottawa. Indigenous womens status.22Fall/Winter 2024'