Elders in prison started out with actual elders from the community being paid by CSC to come in and be the elder for convicts, both men and women. I think around the early 2000s that policy changed, or that had changed internally within CSC, and elders were no longer approached by CSC. Instead these roles were advertised as jobs. If you're a native person, any native person, any age, you could be hired by CSC and be called an elder and get a paycheque and be the elder.
That's not how indigenous people, Métis, Inuit, and first nations, pick an elder or recognize an elder. Elders are community members who know the teachings, know the medicines, know the stories, know the language, more often than not, and have years, if not decades, of experience within the community as a spiritual adviser, a medicine healer, maybe a pipe carrier, a sweat lodge runner—