A statement from Carol McBride, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day| Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC)

GATINEAU, Que. - At the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), we welcome the 2024 National Indigenous People’s Day with eyes on true reconciliation.

Today, we encourage all Canadians to celebrate Indigenous Peoples of Canada and to honour our legacies with hopes for healing and shaking off the bonds of colonization.

Hear our singers, our drummers, and see our dancers. Marvel at the beautiful colours of our ribbon skirts and Traditional clothing. Taste the country and Pow Wow foods that have long sustained us. Touch the heart of the grandmother who lives at the end of your road. Respect that tomorrow and every day that follows.

Today, we ask for widespread recognition of our culture, languages and traditions. We have existed here from coast to coast to beautiful coast for millennia- stewards of the lands and waters we all still share today.

In many Indigenous cultures, the women are known to be Water Keepers and Water Carriers. The Indigenous worldview of water is holistic and Traditional Knowledge guides us. Water cleanses and heals; it is alive and sacred. At NWAC’s 50^th anniversary, we reiterate the call for supporting our environmental advocacy. It’s more important now than ever that we protect our oceans, rivers, and freshwater lakes so they flow to bring life and sustain our future. https://nwac.ca/policy/water-carriers

NWAC and the grassroots women of Canada will keep up the hard work around advocacy for meaningful change to support our women, girls and gender-diverse people as they deserve, and to right the wrongs of colonization.

These wrongs devastatingly continue to this day based on systemic racism and oppression. We need to stamp out the fires, fuel the change, as we embrace the compassion and help from all of our allies.

Let’s move the needle on removing the barriers, so our children and grandchildren may play together, work together and flourish side by side in a Canada that cares for us all.

-Ends-

For media inquiries, please contact communications@nwac.ca

About The Native Women’s Association of Canada

The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is a national Indigenous organization representing political voices of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people in Canada. NWAC is inclusive of First Nations—on- and off-reserve, status, non-status, and disenfranchised—Inuit, and Métis. An aggregate of Indigenous women’s organizations from across the country, NWAC was founded on a collective goal to enhance, promote, and foster social, economic, cultural, and political well-being of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people within their respective communities and Canadian societies.

À propos de l'Association des femmes autochtones du Canada

L'Association des femmes autochtones du Canada (AFAC) est une organisation autochtone nationale qui représente la voix politique des femmes, des filles, des transgenres, des bispirituels et des personnes de sexe différent au Canada, y compris les membres des Premières nations vivant dans les réserves et hors réserve, les Indiens inscrits et non inscrits, les personnes privées de leurs droits, les Métis et les Inuits. Regroupant des organisations de femmes autochtones de tout le pays, l'AFAC a été fondée dans le but collectif d'améliorer, de promouvoir et de favoriser le bien-être social, économique, culturel et politique des femmes autochtones au sein de leurs communautés respectives et des sociétés canadiennes.

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A statement from Carol McBride, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day