This past weekend was the National Indigenous Peoples Day across Turtle Island. Celebrating Indigenous culture and contribution put us in mind of our connections with Indigenous women in PEI over our five decades. As our 2014-2016 Purple Ribbon Campaigns expressed, our desire is to work towards right relationships with Indigenous peoples and walk a path of reconciliation.
2014 Purple RIbbon card calling for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
Our relationship has been first and foremost with the Aboriginal Women’s Association (AWA) of PEI, but we have also been proud to work with Lennox Island First Nation, Abegweit First Nation, and the Native Council of PEI.
In the early years, the Status of Women made efforts to have Indigenous women at the Council table, starting with Rikki Schock, who served for a five-year term in the 1980s. In the 1990s, we had our first (and so far, only) Indigenous Chairperson, the wonderful Sharon O’Brien. In the 2000s, another prominent Council member was Roseanne Sark, who likewise offered her wisdom and experience whole-heartedly. For a briefer, but joyous, time we had Lalana Paul at the table, and the most recent Indigenous member was Chrissy MacPhail, who served with energy and enthusiasm. These Indigenous Council members challenged us to grow in our knowledge as settlers.
Profile of Sharon O’Brien from the PEIACSW 1998 Annual Report
Lennox Island basket, c. 1940s, featured in the First Hand project.
Project work has also deepened our connection with Indigenous women. The millennium project “First Hand: Arts, Crafts, and Culture by PEI Women of the 20th Century” relied on the knowledge and generosity of Tiffany Sark, who wrote a history of Mi’kmaw women’s basket weaving. For two years (2014 & 2015) our annual Purple Ribbon Campaign Against Violence Against Women explicitly called for the government to establish a National Inquiry into the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
2014 multilingual poster for the Purple Ribbon Campaign
We are especially proud of our Truth & Reconciliation Study Group, which tackled the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Final Report in the winter of 2016. Together with the women of the Aboriginal Women’s Association, we delved into the many painful truths of Canada’s residential school history and its legacy of harm to First Nation peoples. In 2017, we hosted another study group with the Aboriginal Women’s Association to consider the fifty years since the launch of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Similarly, Council and the AWA organized a study group to consider the Calls to Action that came from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, but unfortunately it was scheduled to begin in March 2020 and had to be cancelled when we all entered lockdown.
Some participants in the 2017 study group on the Royal Commission, Mari Basiletti, Elder Judy Clark, Carrington Christmas, and Kendi Tarichia
Since 2014, we have ensured that a candle is lit during our December 6th Memorial Service for Victims of Violence that acknowledges the violence against Indigenous women and girls especially, and remembers them. We also include Indigenous ceremony and symbols as critical components of the service. Land acknowledgments have become standard at all meetings and occasions, and we strive to keep them meaningful and respectful of our commitments as Treaty People on Mi’kmaki.
Elder Thirly Levi raises a candle in prayer for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls at the 2023 Montreal Massacre Memorial Service.
Throughout our past 50 years, it is the relationships with individual Indigenous women that have had a profound impact and helped us know the reality of our colonial culture. We are forever grateful to Mi’kmaw elders and knowledge-keepers Judy Clark and Julie Pellissier-Lush and Thirly Levi. And most recently, we were so happy to have the opportunity to meet with some of the women staff members of the AWA when we met in Lennox Island for our 200th Council meeting (May 30, 2025). We will continue to work hard to make connections between communities across Epekwitk and support and uphold the work of Indigenous women however we can. We’lalioq.
Chairperson Hsiao-Yu Liu (top left) with some members and staff of the Aboriginal Women’s Association of PEI, Lennox Island First Nation, May 2025.
