A YEAR IN REVIEW

This has been a year of showing up — in parliamentary committee rooms and community centres, on riverbanks and around board tables, at the United Nations and in kitchens across the country. Before we look ahead to 2026–2027, we wanted to pause and share some of the moments, voices, and people who made this year what it was.

We invite you to take the time to read it in full — every section here holds a story worth knowing.

She didn’t slow down from there. Between conferences in Ottawa, roundtables with federal ministers, and a seat at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, President Nepinak spent the year making sure Indigenous women had a voice in the room — wherever that room happened to be.

Long before there were labs and sensors, Indigenous women were reading rivers — by taste, by smell, by the colour of the water at the bend. This year, NWAC’s Environment Department brought that knowledge back to the water’s edge.

Across Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Millbrook, 46 women picked up sampling kits and waded in — some for the very first time — learning to test water quality hand-in-hand with Elders and Knowledge Keepers who’d been reading these same waters for decades. It worked so well that two of the women trained through the program were hired by NWAC afterward: one to help build a national water security toolkit, the other to lead a fish conservation workshop of her own.

This was just one piece of a much bigger year for the Environment team: alongside 8 PTMAs, they delivered 7 projects and held 23 workshops on water security, medicinal plants, food systems, and land protection, reaching 286 Indigenous women in total. As one participant put it plainly: this knowledge deserves a seat at the policy table, not just the riverbank — and NWAC is working to make sure it gets one.

Guided by an Elder, the group didn’t just leave with a shawl — they left with a new way to hold their grief. Each finished shawl now serves as something participants can turn to when grief resurfaces: a physical reminder of resilience, and of a community that showed up for them.

The workshop filled up so quickly that a waitlist formed almost immediately — a gentle but clear reminder of how much more room for healing is still needed across the country.

Behind every ISET file is a woman juggling childcare, rent, and a dream she’d nearly given up on. This year, NWAC’s Indigenous Skills and Employment Training program helped Indigenous women across the country cover tuition, books, transportation, and childcare so they could finish what they started.

We don’t share client names to protect confidentiality — but we can share their words:

This year, NWAC kept the pressure on where it matters most: a National MMIWG2S+ Working Group was established, accountability scorecards were published, and NWAC stayed at the table pushing for a Red Dress Alert, an Indigenous Ombudsperson, and real follow-through on the 231 Calls for Justice. Behind every meeting and headline were the families and survivors who trusted NWAC to carry their stories forward.

In July, President Nepinak sat down with Canada’s Premiers and national Indigenous leaders to talk economic reconciliation. Her message was simple and direct: real economic reconciliation means investing in Indigenous women themselves — through culturally grounded childcare, wraparound supports, skills training, and business mentorship — not just infrastructure and pipelines.

From federal-provincial-territorial dialogues on gender equality to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, NWAC made sure Indigenous women’s priorities travelled wherever decisions were being made this year — sitting alongside ministers, ambassadors, and fellow Indigenous organizations to keep safety, justice, and self-determination on the agenda.

Every one of NWAC’s 10 Provincial and Territorial Member Associations brought something different to the table this year — here’s a small taste of what was happening on the ground, region by region.

In June, NWAC’s Leadership Team gathered for a working session to shape the Strategic Advocacy Plan for 2026–2027 — mapping out priorities, sharpening messages, and making sure every department is pulling in the same direction. A well-earned shout-out to the team for putting in the thinking now that will carry NWAC’s advocacy forward next year.

None of this happens without our PTMAs, our Elders and Knowledge Keepers, our funders and partners, and the Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people who trust us with their stories. Here’s to another year of showing up for each other.

With gratitude,
The NWAC Team