b'FREEZING MOONSTRENGTH, SERVICE andVISIONAdeline Webbers life of perseverance and purposeBy Matthew BradfordA steady advocate knownmodest job, but opportunity arose whenProgram, where she helped to open for her respectful leader- the Council of Yukon Indians (now theemployment pathways for Indigenous ship, Adeline WebberCouncil of Yukon First Nations) set uppeople. It was very, very successful, she has made a life out ofoffices within the school. Webber appliedlater reflected. We have many people in making change. Since the 1970s, thethere and soon found herself in a role thatsenior government positions today who Teslin Tlingit Nation memberwhoseintroduced her to the land claims processtook advantage of those programs.traditional name is Khayadehas chan- and the work of helping Indigenous nelled the pain of her residential schoolcitizens reconnect with families andOutside of work, she joined the board experience into a lifelong commitment toregister their identities. In 1974, driven byof the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre, community development, public servicewhat she saw, she joined the Yukon Indianlater serving as president and now as and Indigenous advocacy. Womens Association (now the Yukonan honorary lifetime member. She also Aboriginal Womens Council) to confrontserved on the board of directors of the Going to residential school, beingthe inequality Indigenous women facedNational Association of Friendship Centres separated from my family and losing myacross the territory. and holds a lifetime appointment on brothers those are all things that havetheir senate.driven me, she says. I came out of thoseBy the 1980s, Webbers natural leader-experiences wanting to help communitiesship and ability to build programs that organize and do things they werent ableempowered others had taken root.FAR FROM RETIREDto do previously, so they could get out ofWhen she saw a posting for a NativeAfter nearly three decades of service, poverty and children could have betterEmployment Coordinator with the PublicWebber retired from the federal public lives. I always knew that was important. Service Commission of Canada, she knewservice in 2003. But retirement, as it it was a perfect fit. They were lookingturns out, marked yet another begin-Webbers journey launched after sevenfor someone to help recruit people intoning. Over the past 20 years, she has years at the Whitehorse Baptist Missionthe public service, she recalls. Aftercontinued to champion healing, learning School, where she was sent at just fiveall the lobbying work Id done and theand community empowerment across years old. When she left, she marriedthings I was hearing in communities, Ithe Yukon. She founded and led the her husband, Bill Webber, and set out towas very interested. In 1987, WebberWhitehorse Aboriginal Womens Circle, build a new life. Without the opportunitywas appointed District Director of thedeveloping training programs for self-suffi-to attend post-secondary school, sheCommission for the Public Serviceciency and helping lead local strategies to found work in the kitchen and laundryCommission of Canada and took on theaddress missing and murdered Indigenous at Yukon Hall Residential School. It was amanagement of the Northern Careerswomen and girls.40 Fall/Winter 2025'