b'LEAVES TURNING MOONCARRYINGMelanie Omenihos GENERATIONS persistent fight for Metis womenM elanie OmenihoOmeniho reflects. I saw other womenBy Bryan Hansenwhen Indigenous women werent at the carries generationsgoing through things no one should gotable. I watched brutality within our own with her. A proudthrough, and I just felt we could do bettercommunity, she says. I watched how Mtis woman fromas human beings. women, including my mother, were torn the historic community of Lac Ste. Anne,down by people who didnt understand one of Albertas oldest Mtis heartlands,Omenihos own life experiences addedthe value of womens leadership. I knew she has spent her life advocating for Mtisfuel to that fire. Married young, shein my heart I didnt ever want to be part of women, girls and gender-diverse kinquickly realized she needed a differentthat. I wanted to lift people up.across the Mtis Motherland. Today shepath, one based in advocacy and service. serves as president of Les Femmes MichifShe pursued post-secondary education, Otipemisiwak LFMO, the national voicestepped into child welfare and povertyA LIFE OF NATIONAL ADVOCACYof Mtis women, but her leadership storyrelief work, and began confronting theBy the 1980s, Omeniho had moved fully begins long before titles, policy tables orsystemic issues harming Mtis families. Iinto Mtis political work. She played roles national recognition. realized how many women were losingin several major national movements: their children because of poverty, notthe Royal Commission on Aboriginal I was a fifth-generation child, Omenihoneglect, she says. If they didnt have their says. I grew up surrounded by grandpar- children, they werent eligible for support. ents, great-grandparentsstrong womenIf they werent eligible for support, theyd who raised their children, then raisedlose their homes. Without a home, they their siblings, then raised us. Everyonecouldnt get their children back. It was a was family. I didnt understand until I wasvicious, unfair cycle.older that not everyone grew up knowing all their fourth or fifth cousins as siblings. Seeing that cycle repeated across community after community strengthened Omeniho speaks about her upbringingher resolve. I became a child welfare with deep affection. Her great-grand- advocate because I couldnt watch our mother was widowed young and raised herwomen be treated that way anymore, children alone. Her grandmother helpedshe reflects.raise both siblings and grandchildren. Her mother, too, stepped into leadership roles long before Mtis women had formalFINDING HER VOICEpolitical recognition. My mother wasOmeniho didnt always feel confident actually president of Mtis Women beforespeaking in public. In fact, she laughs, I ever was, she says. She dragged me toremembering her early days. I would say, meetings everywhere. I watched her advo- Someone needs to speak up, and my cate for housing, for better opportunities,mother or grandmother would say, Well, for women who were struggling. Thatyoud better get up there and say it. And shaped me. I would say, No, Ill cry if I go up there. Still, they pushed her. And she learned to Growing up in Lac Ste. Anne, Omenihopush herself. I was often the one people witnessed not only the culture, generositycame to, saying, Can you say this for and interconnectedness of Mtis life,us? So I did. I felt like I was speaking for but also the inequities and systemicpeople who didnt feel they had a voice.failures that many families faced. As I got older, I realized not everybody hadOmenihos leadership style, which can be the kind of support we hadtwo parents,described as decisive and community-first, aunties everywhere, unconditional love,came from watching what happened 34 Fall/Winter 2025'