Status of Women committee  They have to retain funding from Indigenous Services Canada, or they have to have a loan guarantee from the Minister of Indigenous Services to get a loan to purchase a home or build a home.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I'm no longer the chief of Curve Lake First Nation. I stepped back from that role in 2022. When I was in that role, I had eight months after my election before we started dealing with the global pandemic and finding ways to support families through that. Mothers, in p

Status of Women committee  I think there are a growing number of female indigenous chiefs, which is a phenomenal role to be a part of. When I was elected and I attended my first assembly of first nations, there were four other female chiefs sitting together, who took me under their wing and supported my gr

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Leah. I think it's incredibly important that we have the opportunity for kinship care and recognition of the cultural relationships within family that we already have, that exist, and be able to support those women and recognize that they also need access to things l

Status of Women committee  For indigenous women as primary caregivers in our communities, for indigenous people generally, for our children, it's a real struggle. I don't know if you've had an opportunity to read the book If I Go Missing. It is incredibly impactful, and it's a demonstration of this real fe

Status of Women committee  The history of the Indian Act is that in 1857 it was the Gradual Civilization Act, and then it was consolidated into what is known as the Indian Act now. The entire foundation of that was to subvert the indigenous population in Canada and integrate them into the Canadian body wit

Status of Women committee  I see a great opportunity. In the energy transition conversations that I've been a part of, women have a different perspective on long-term planning. I think that's a real opportunity that needs to be leveraged and included. My experience has been—not wholesale, but mostly—that

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. There are a number of unique barriers to indigenous women, status Indian women, living on the Indian reserves across Canada. There is an inability to leverage the equity in our assets, like our homes, in order to get loans to participate in the economy. That's a huge

Status of Women committee  Currently, under the Indian Act, women—indigenous people—can't borrow against the equity in their homes. We can't leverage any property that's held by a status Indian on Indian reserve land. Until we find a mechanism to enable credit for indigenous people who are living on Indian

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Michelle. I think this is something that I often breeze over, because it is such an integral part of the culture that I come from. In Anishinabe culture, men and women are equal but satisfy these roles in different ways. Without a partner who was at home supporting

Status of Women committee  In our culture, men are typically responsible for the fire and the food, and women are responsible for the fruit and the water. If you lose one half of that equation, the world is not in balance and you're not feeding your family. If you don't have water, you don't have food. If

Status of Women committee  Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for having me here today. This is my first time submitting as a witness to a committee. I'm really grateful for that opportunity. I'm going to introduce myself in Anishinaabemowin. I think that's a very important thing for me to do. [Wit