Ontario Native Women’s Association   35
Culturally based support 
services stressed at 
Indigenous shelters in 
Ottawa and Thunder Bay
By Sam Laskaris
Walking Together  
   TO SAFETY
T
hey are situated at opposite 
ends of the province. Yet 
Minwaashin Lodge, located 
in the nation’s capital of 
Ottawa, and Beendigen, based in the 
northwestern Ontario city of Thunder Bay, 
are strikingly similar.
Both have offered long-running 
immediate support via shelters for 
Indigenous women and their children 
who are fleeing violence. Both also assist 
in various other ways, such as providing 
transitional housing and culturally rooted 
services for those who identify as First 
Nations, Inuit or Métis.
Though it was launched a few years earlier, 
Minwaashin Lodge was officially incorpor-
ated in 1994. It now operates Oshki Kizis 
Shelter, a 28-bed shelter in downtown 
Ottawa. The lodge offices are located in 
a separate building in one of the city’s 
industrial parks.
“Minwaashin is very fortunate because we 
have complete wraparound services,” says 
Mary Daoust, who spent three years as its 
acting executive director before formally 
assuming the role in 2014. “We can accom-
modate anyone from the age of 0 to 100 
as far as supports go. Minwaashin has 
programming that the women can access 
under one roof, so they’re not being 
referred back out into [the] mainstream, 
into a strange environment.”
Daoust says many Indigenous women who 
end up seeking assistance in Ottawa come 
from northern communities in the prov-
ince or other areas across the country, and 
it’s not uncommon for them to experience 
some culture shock in Ottawa. “They don’t 
have the ability or the capacity to access 
services on their own,” she says. “That is 
not something that they are acquainted 
with, because up north, there are such 
very, very limited services to begin with.”
Minwaashin staff assist those at the shelter 
in numerous ways beyond providing an 
SAFE HOUSING
immediate safe place to live. For example, 
staff help find transitional or more perma-
nent housing options and also help set up 
possible employment opportunities.
“We have that ability to accommodate 
about 99 per cent of whatever it is 
they need to be successful and to be 
independent for the very first time,” 
Daoust says. “They will go into safe 
housing. They will have a worker to follow 
them. They will have someone monitoring 
them. They will have a safety plan put in 
place. They will have everything in place 
for them to succeed.”
Support services offered by Minwaashin 
Lodge include the basics, like assistance 
with budgeting or finding a school in 
the area for mothers to send their chil-
dren. That support establishes a strong 
foundation to grow from. “That builds 
confidence,” Daoust says. “That builds 
Beendigen staff members Cindy Paypompee, Royleen Dupuis,  
Jessica Goodman, Maya Mounayer and Olivia Pelky (past staff member).

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