Abstract
Although the activism and historic contributions of Indigenous female leaders to urban Indigenous community development across Turtle Island are recognized, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding the specific mechanisms that enabled Indigenous women to successfully articulate cultural knowledge and inform their management styles by traditional ways. The article explores some of the contributions of female leadership to the governance and program design of a large, culture-based urban Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada—the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC). We examine how the OFIFC’s Executive Director Sylvia Maracle (Skonaganleh:ra) has applied leadership principles grounded in Indigenous knowledge of her paternal grandmother and a Mohawk matriarch—Mary Ellen Maracle—to address specific challenges in urban Indigenous governance. We argue that the female-led articulation of Indigenous knowledge in organizational operations contributed to creating a community of service that respects distinct expressions of cultural and gender identity.
Keywords
Introduction
Much has been written about the historic construction of urban Indigeneity and the developmental paths of Indigenous-run organizations since the formative years of grassroots Indigenous service delivery infrastructure in American and Canadian cities (Dion & Salamanca, 2014; Environics Institute, 2010; Frideres, 2008; Newhouse & Belanger, 2001; Newhouse & Chapman, 1996; Newhouse et al., 2012; Peters & Andersen, 2013; Pitts, 2018; Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, 1978; Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, Ontario Métis Aboriginal Association, & Ontario Native Women’s Association, 2007). The activism and cultural innovation of urban Indigenous women, their complex relationship to patriarchy and continuous efforts to provide a sense of home and an equitable access to resources for their communities are also relatively well documented (Howard-Bobiwash, 2003; Krouse & Howard-Bobiwash, 2009; Lajimodiere, 2011; Maracle, 2003; Peters & Andersen, 2013). Although the legacy and historic contributions of these female leaders are recognized, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding the specific mechanisms that enabled Indigenous women to successfully articulate cultural knowledge in urban settings and inform their management styles by traditional ways. This article contributes to filling this gap by shedding light on the experiences of Sylvia Maracle (Skonaganleh:ra)—the Executive Director of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) since 1978 and a traditional teacher from the Tyendinaga territory.
In writing this article, we drew upon the concepts of ancestral, relational and servant leadership in Indigenous contexts. Kelly et al. (2014) define ancestral leadership as based on “knowledge that is built on earlier experience and continues to reflect leadership dynamics from the bonds of ancestry by virtue of a continuous exchange between three realities: the human, the cosmos, and the divine” (p. 165). People who embody ancestral leadership often make decisions based on the cultural values that they learned in their early lives and they cherish the genealogical connection to the leaders who came before them (Kelly et al., 2014). Similarly, relational leaders are “enriched by connections to place, space and histories” (Evans & Sinclair, 2016, p. 485). They draw from the authority of ancestors and the community of archetypal leaders to promote the common good while nurturing special relationships with lands, developed over many generations of stewardship (Henry & Wolfgram, 2018). Common characteristics of servant leadership within both Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural perspectives include integrity, empathy, foresight, stewardship and the focus on community (Ruwhiu & Elkin, 2016). Chamberlain et al. (2016) describe the servant leadership in the context of Indigenous midwifery as the ethical practice of seeing “no one person as wiser than the other.”
Urban Indigenous women have embodied the principles of servant, ancestral and relational leadership in the process of creating organizations to secure the survival of their people (Howard-Bobiwash, 2003; Maracle, 2003; Peters & Andersen, 2013; Weibel-Orlando, 2009). Many Indigenous women have brought maternal/grandmaternal approaches to their leadership (Kenny & Fraser, 2012; Kuokkanen, 2019), often with low profiles while the men carried titles of importance and occupied formal positions of authority (Lajimodiere, 2011; Lobo, 2009). Work “behind the scenes” has framed much of the historic experiences of women in Indigenous community organizing (e.g., Simpson, 2012), and some female activists have challenged the policies of gender exclusion by fostering a model of service-based leadership that underscored the “sharing of the dream and not power” and the ethics of responsibility (Maracle, 2003; Tsosie, 2010).
In Canada, the context that we write from, Indigenous women who participated in a 2011 study exploring elected female leadership in First Nations communities reported that some of their male opponents believed that the women acted against Indigenous traditions by becoming elected leaders, and that they were too emotionally unstable to be making difficult political decisions (Voyageur, 2011). Mi’kmaw scholar Cyndy Baskin (2019) notes that Indigenous men have leveraged “traditional” teachings to legitimize the exclusion of women from leadership, ceremonies and other aspects of collective life. Without denying the value and importance of female contributions outside of political institutions, the lack of formal leadership authority of women in Indigenous governance remains “a concern to be taken seriously” (Kuokkanen, 2019, p. 140).
Scholarship on Indigenous trans, queer and two-spirit community building introduces further critical questions of gender inequities in leadership. Queer Indigenous scholarship emphasizes the cis-heteropatriarchal 1 and heteronormative 2 nature of colonialism that resulted in disruption of sexual and gender fluidity historically present in Indigenous societies across Turtle Island (Barker, 2017; Cannon, 1998; Laing, 2018; Lang, 2016), and frames Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ critical theories as acts of resistance and emancipation from settler colonial structures (Driskill et al., 2011). Some researchers point out that the queering praxis 3 embodied in the reclamation of ancestral roles allows 2SLGBTQ+ people to fill a fundamental space as leaders in their communities and it is vital for their overall health and wellbeing (Hunt, 2016; Walters et al., 2006). Calls for centering women and 2SLGBTQ+ people as we move forward in decolonizing, self-determination and nation building efforts (Hunt & Holmes, 2015; Kuokkanen, 2019; Simpson, 2012) are in keeping with the stories we share below.
Methodology
We position ourselves as a Métis scholar who has spent most of her career working on subjects of gender and Indigeneity (Anderson), a Cree educator who brings Indigenous pedagogies and content into their teaching practice (Neepin) and a Polish academic engaged in Indigenous research (Bergier). As such, we have approached Sylvia Maracle to explore how an accomplished female leader and a skillful translator of her community’s cultural knowledge envisioned the intricacies of urban Indigenous governance.
Calliou and Wesley-Esquimaux (2015) argue that the expansion of contextual and interpretative case studies can effectively examine wise practices in culturally appropriate, servant leadership. Following this perspective, we conducted a single case study, using rich, descriptive details from Sylvia’s narrative to examine significant attributes, nuances and milestones of her leadership journey. We conducted six in-depth interviews with Sylvia over the course of several months. Our approach was aligned with Indigenous research methodologies (Kovach, 2010; Smith, 1999; Wilson, 2008) and centered primarily on storytelling, which is respectful of the oral traditions and the relational nature of Indigenous knowledge transfer. Data were also gathered through participation and observation during community-relevant events and activities at the OFIFC. A thematic analysis of the data (Braun & Clarke, 2013) with the use of NVivo qualitative analysis software was conducted to identify the overarching themes. While the thick description allowed for an in-depth understanding of Sylvia’s experience, we acknowledge the disadvantages associated with the case study such as limited generalizability and the concern that the constructed account might illuminate the perceptions of the researcher as much as those voiced by the participant (Mills et al., 2010; Simons, 2014).
Themes from our storywork
As we worked with the stories shared by Sylvia, we noticed that her understanding of leadership was inextricably linked with the experience of being raised and profoundly influenced by her late paternal grandmother Mary Ellen Maracle. By honoring her grandmother’s teachings and weaving them into the everyday good living of an urban Indigenous organization Sylvia has strived to embody one of the most significant lessons she learned about leadership—that to be a leader means to “carry the bones of the people” (S.Maracle, personal communication, 12 December 2017). This and other teachings shared by Mary Ellen Maracle have become the underpinnings of her granddaughter’s vision and practice, subsequently contributing to the empowerment of urban Indigenous leadership.
We structured our reflections around Sylvia’s quotes that, in our opinion, accurately express both the essence of Indigenous leadership principles passed down by a well-respected matriarch and their contemporary applications in an urban environment. Although we recognize that the OFIFC’s governance was influenced by many accomplished leaders who served the Friendship Centre communities as Elders, Knowledge Keepers, members of the OFIFC Board of Directors, and in other capacities, our narrative focuses on one woman’s lived experiences throughout her long trajectory as an Executive Director of a large urban Indigenous organization. The following overarching themes emerged from the conversations we held with Sylvia about Indigenous leadership:
Conscious upbringing and the importance of growing up with cultural knowledge.
Making time and space for emerging leaders.
Leaders as servants of the people.
The themes were contextualized within the contemporary scholarship about Indigenous women and governance, Indigenous feminism, Indigenous youth mentorship, urban Indigenous community building and Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ critical theories. We have discussed how each of these leadership lessons helped address a unique challenge in urban Indigenous governance.
Growing up with cultural knowledge: an expert is not far from home
My grandmother was a tiny, brown-skinned woman who couldn’t read or write. But she knew a lot about medicines and healing. And she also knew the stories about our community passed down through many generations. These stories became my teachings. The teachings came alive in the ceremonies and the ceremonies became my practice, my everyday good living. I was well into my twenties when I understood that my grandmother was my first traditional teacher. If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have been ready for all the other teachers. It took me a while to appreciate that I grew up with immense wealth of cultural knowledge and many others did not. I didn’t understand when I was growing up that how I was raised would become such a significant part of who I am. It was only after I started to find my other traditional teachers that I was able to thank my grandmother for all the precious gifts she had shared with me. (S.Maracle, personal communication, 2 February 2018).
The quote above is a short excerpt from a complex and multilayered response Sylvia gave when we first asked her about Indigenous women’s leadership. Many of Sylvia’s reflections on Indigenous governance revolved steadily around foundational teachings she received from a powerful individual, a community leader, a traditional teacher and a tender caregiver to many children and grandchildren—her late grandmother. This corresponds with scholarship about the significance of grandmothers as a source of resilience and models for leadership (Anderson, 2016; Hill & Hoss, 2018; Lajimodiere, 2011; Leclair et al., 2003). It is important to note, however, that Sylvia’s emphasis on cultural upbringing is never dismissive of individuals who did not grow up with Indigenous teachings, nor of their capacity to lead. Likewise, our analysis here does not exclusively validate a leadership model that requires a continuous, long-term access to cultural knowledge since early childhood. Rather, it points to the importance of alternative pathways to cultural socialization in urban contexts that can be inspired by ancestral leadership and activated by internal knowledge transfer structures in Indigenous organizations.
Sylvia describes early childhood experiences of intergenerational learning from her grandmother and other benevolent adults as conscious upbringing: “being surrounded by love, no ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts.’” Having lived in a peaceful yet relatively homogeneous community setting in her early years, Sylvia wished to recreate this sense of home in the urban Indigenous organization she has served as a leader for over 40 years. This, however, has not been an easy task given that one of the distinctive traits of urban Indigeneity is that it encompasses a diversity of peoples and a multitude of cultural traditions (Howard-Bobiwash & Proulx, 2011; Newhouse & Peters, 2011; Peters & Andersen, 2013).
Urban Indigenous identities are complex, multi-dimensional, scaffolded constructs, influenced by mobility patterns, different levels of cultural awareness and the nature of one’s relationships in the city among many other factors (Fast et al., 2017). FitzMaurice (2012) perceives internal divisions and socio-economic disparities relating to identity and culture as main challenges to community cohesion in urban Indigenous governance initiatives. While referring predominantly to issues related to political representation of geographically and culturally diverse population of Indigenous city residents, Fitzmaurice’s statement can also be applied to the reality of internal management of urban Indigenous organizations such as the OFIFC. Within this particular context, one of the main challenges consists of maintaining a unified voice that can efficiently articulate the goals of the Friendship Centre movement without imposing rigid standards on the staff members and suppressing their cultural differences.
Founded in 1969, the OFIFC is a non-profit organization that supports member Friendship Centres in the province of Ontario in areas such as program design, policy, training and research. As a workplace, the OFIFC welcomes members of diverse Indigenous communities as well as non-Indigenous people committed to the advancement of the Friendship Centre movement. The OFIFC’s neha (bundle/way of life) consists of stories, teachings, sacred items and high-minded principles gifted by many prominent Elders and Knowledge Keepers who represent different Indigenous nations. The foundational teachings contained in the bundle weave a common thread of knowledge and outline the collective responsibilities of staff as members of the OFIFC community. Although the OFIFC is committed to safeguarding the neha, it also respects individual sense of belonging and cultural affiliation of all (Bergier & Maracle, Forthcoming).
As a leader presented with the challenge to safely negotiate these different streams of knowledge, Sylvia understood the need to create internal governance structures that would facilitate an appropriate learning space for individuals who find themselves in different places in terms of asserting connection to their ancestry and cultural practices. Growing up surrounded by the loving presence of a matriarch who acted as a “living archive” of her community’s knowledge inspired Sylvia to approach some of the OFIFC staff members with the intention of creating a Traditional Council, formed by individuals willing to support the transfer of the OFIFC’s foundational teachings. Currently, the Council is led by the Traditional Knowledge Holders’ Group that represents people with diverse ancestry and various Indigenous traditions. It is responsible for sharing and cultivating the OFIFC’s cultural memory by initiating Indigenous knowledge transfer, mentoring the staff members and facilitating a safe environment for learners to pick up the OFIFC’s neha (Bergier & Maracle, Forthcoming).
The creation of the OFIFC Traditional Council is by no means an all-encompassing solution to challenges that may arise in relation with navigating diversity in an organizational setting. It does, however, mark a clear movement toward internal governance structures that seek to provide community consolidation and support. Diverse identities of staff members and the wealth of organizational resources create space for learners to seek guidance in-house without the need to reach out to an expert who is “far from home.”
Surrounding the community with love: making time and space for emerging leaders
My grandmother believed that if a person had a question, they deserved an answer that satisfied them. I could ask that old woman anything. When I started working for the Friendship Centre movement, I realized there were individuals at the local, provincial and national level who acted as benevolent guides and were willing to answer my questions. They mentored many people and didn’t hold back their love and affection. They made space for the youth like me and offered us leadership opportunities, but they also deliberately talked about what was and what wasn’t acceptable behaviour. Those teachers took the time to transfer leadership skills to me because they understood that relationship building and knowledge transfer require time and space (S.Maracle, personal communication, 12 September 2018).
Having come to Toronto as a young person, feeling isolated and looking for ways to reconnect with communal life, Sylvia longed to recreate the everyday good living she knew as a child. The early urban Indigenous programming she benefited from combined with the long-term guidance received from Indigenous mentors and traditional teachers led her to believe that the Friendship Centres could effectively embody the cultural approaches to community development and support young leaders who wished to serve urban Indigenous communities. Sylvia’s experiences echo the challenges still faced by many Indigenous youth who transition into urban life in search of better opportunities and education while struggling with a disrupted sense of belonging (Young et al., 2012). Culturally appropriate social supports and safe spaces are considered critical factors in the health of Indigenous youth (Big-Canoe & Richmond, 2014; Goodman et al., 2019; Richmond & Smith, 2012) and Indigenous communities have been relentlessly focusing their healing efforts on prevention and reestablishing the circle of care around children and young people (Ansloos, 2017; Pitts, 2018; Ritchie et al., 2015; Wood et al., 2018). Although immediate family plays crucial role in the wellbeing of the youth, their support can be replicated and strengthened by the extended family and non-kin mentors (Klinck et al., 2005; Muir & Bohr, 2014).
According to the study on mentoring relationships and the mental health of Indigenous youth in Canada based on the data collected in the Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations (DeWit et al., 2017), Indigenous youth were significantly less likely than non-Indigenous youth to be in a long-term continuous mentoring relationship. The study also revealed that in comparison to Indigenous youth who were not being mentored, the Indigenous youth with mentors experienced lower levels of social anxiety and emotional problems (DeWit et al., 2017). As evidenced in the research of Sinclair and Pooyak (2007), the Indigenous youth participating in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program in Saskatoon, Canada felt that it was important to have access to Indigenous mentors who would be culturally knowledgeable. One of the Elders who participated in the study, referred to mentoring in Indigenous communities as a “parental thing” where siblings, aunts/uncles and grandparents act as compassionate guides in children’s lives (Sinclair & Pooyak, 2007, p. 21).
Growing up in Tyendinaga, Sylvia had access not only to her grandmother’s support, but also to different aunts and uncles she could ask for advice. As a young leader within the Friendship Centre movement, Sylvia would affectionately refer to some of her traditional teachers as “uncles” or “aunties” to honor these mentoring relationships and replicate the familial bonds nurtured in her community of origin. Hence, creating networks of support around Indigenous children and youth had a fundamental importance in Sylvia’s work at the OFIFC since before the beginning of her leadership as the Executive Director in 1978. Sylvia was heavily involved in the conceptual design and the implementation of the L’il Beavers pilot project, which was the OFIFC’s first initiative designed to support urban Indigenous children and youth by engaging them in meaningful, culture-based activities in the areas of recreation and education (Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, 1985). Launched in 1976 as a children and youth-centered mentorship program with strong involvement of local community Elders and Knowledge Keepers, L’il Beavers aimed to facilitate healthy physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual development of the participants while honoring their role within the Life Cycle teaching (OFIFC, 2015; Terbenche, 2016). Although the L’il Beavers was canceled in 1995, the program provided a foundation for the current Friendship Centre youth programming and its abrupt ending was a catalyst for Sylvia and the OFIFC Board of Directors to boost advocacy efforts regarding culturally appropriate services for urban Indigenous people (Terbenche, 2016). Building on the success of L’il Beavers, the OFIFC designed the Akwe:go (all of us) and Wasa-Nabin (look ahead) programs, which were launched in 2005 and 2008 respectively. The findings of the Akwe:go Wholistic Longitudinal Study (AWLS) demonstrate that although the children and youth reported coping with challenges such as family trauma, death or loss of loved ones, divorce or separation of parents and other difficult life experiences, the mentoring relationships within the Akwe:go, Wasa-Nabin and the Friendship Centre communities are a continuous source of support and a sense of belonging for many of them (OFIFC, 2018a).
Implementation of meaningful strategies that address barriers to urban Indigenous youth leadership participation is one of the most pressing governance tasks faced by Indigenous organizations. The main challenges impeding the youth’s engagement in decision-making processes are poverty, discrimination and tokenization (Matthew, 2009). Under Sylvia’s leadership, the OFIFC Board of Directors was deliberately structured to directly engage the youth and create a space for them to draw on the wisdom of Elders and learn from accomplished community practitioners. Currently, the Board of Directors is comprised of 16 members including 4 youth representatives with voting powers. Furthermore, the OFIFC staff consults and collaborates with the OFIFC Indigenous Youth Council on a regular basis, hosting important events such as the annual OFIFC Youth Forum and providing young people with opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills in Indigenous governance, leadership and culture.
Leaders as servants of the people: nurturing the gifts of all
My grandmother taught me that different kinds of situations require different kinds of leadership. We all serve in different ways. The helper is just as important as the ceremonialist. Individuals need to be encouraged to find their gifts and the rest of the community need to be encouraged to value those gifts. If an issue arises, we should approach whoever has a passion for it or knowledge about it instead of talking with people who have big titles. Thanks to my grandmother, I grew up with an understanding that there were title-holders, but I also knew who the natural leaders were. Within the culture-based model of leadership, the true leaders are referred to as “servants of the people.” They don’t run ahead. Instead, they go as fast as the slowest community member, taking care of the children, the disabled, the elderly and those who are in the ground—the remains of their ancient relatives. They have to know the stories of their ancestors, their hunting grounds and their burial places—that’s why we say that the work of a leader is to carry the bones of the people. Individuals who are good leadership role models are able to engage other people in a culturally sensitive way. It doesn’t matter if you are gender fluid, male or female and it doesn’t matter what kind of energy you carry. What matter are your gifts and your role in making sure that the community is healthy and there is a place for everybody in the circle (S. Maracle, personal communication, 12 December 2017).
In contrast to the grandmaternal teachings highlighting the value of pluralism and one’s meaningful participation rather than the position one holds, Sylvia has witnessed instances of exclusion of women and gender-diverse people from different aspects of community life over the course of her work as a leader. As a two-spirit Indigenous woman who has experienced heteropatriarchal discrimination and questioned the essentialist, binary concepts in her vision of leadership, she has dedicated much of her work as the OFIFC Executive Director to fostering community hubs and organizational spaces that challenge heteronormativity and are equally safe for everyone regardless of gender expression, sexual orientation, ability and cultural identity.
Recently, several Friendship Centres across Ontario voiced the need for capacity building in order to eradicate the discrimination experienced by Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ people and create welcoming environments where these individuals can access culturally-based services, exercise leadership and articulate their goals, needs and lived experiences. In her capacity as the OFIFC Executive Director, Sylvia responded to this need by providing a twofold strategic guidance that involves both the knowledge transfer activities aimed at increasing the community understanding of Indigenous teachings on gender diversity, and designing programs that address the unique needs of the Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ people while supporting them in expressing their gifts and intersectional identities. Following this strategy, the OFIFC launched a research project that engages Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ young people in a community-driven research process to self-define wellbeing and explore ways that Friendship Centres and surrounding communities can support their sense of belonging (OFIFC, 2018b).
As an individual striving to embody the principle of service in her leadership practice, Sylvia recognizes that the young people’s ability to express gender concepts has surpassed the knowledge transfer skills of her generation. Therefore, in addition to relying on the support of different two-spirit Elders to raise Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ awareness among the OFIFC staff members, Sylvia actively seeks the expertise of youth organizations that provide training in the area of Indigenous sexual health. Sylvia also transfers knowledge about Indigenous systems of gender to the staff members herself, drawing on teachings and ceremonies she participated in during her lifelong exploration of Indigenous knowledge.
Finally, Sylvia responded to the challenge of integrating complex gender analysis into the OFIFC’s governance practices by reorganizing the internal Indigenous knowledge transfer structures. Initially, the OFIFC Traditional Council consisted of the Grandmothers’ Council, the Men’s Council and the staff members who wished to support the ongoing cultural development of the OFIFC community. In 2018, the Men’s Council was dissolved, and the Grandmothers’ Council was replaced by the Traditional Knowledge Holders’ Group with no gender-labeled roles. While the former members of the initially established councils continue to offer guidance in regard with taking care of the sacred items, following cultural protocols and fulfilling ceremonial tasks, these changes helped to create a more inclusive workplace that celebrates gender diversity and honors skills and knowledge of the community members instead of reinforcing responsibilities based on rigid gender roles and gender binary.
Discussion and conclusions
The research journey we embarked on with a long-standing Executive Director of a large urban Indigenous organization revealed that the pathway to effective articulation of Indigenous leadership principles is a fourfold practice. Essentially, the process follows the steps of active listening to stories shared by culturally knowledgeable community role-models, experiential learning from the teachings contained within these stories, bringing the teachings to life in sacred ceremonies and embodying them in one’s everyday practice. Sylvia has gone through these steps from the starting place of listening, watching and then modeling her grandmother to a growing practice of creating spaces of inclusion, ceremony and Indigenous knowledge transfer in the organization she has led for almost 40 years.
In Sylvia’s experience, the fourfold practice began at her grandmother’s kitchen table where she absorbed powerful narratives of the past and developed a sense of home—a feeling of being surrounded by love. At the center of this experience are grandmaternal perspectives on vibrant, harmonious communal life and Sylvia’s subsequent desire to create emotionally validating spaces where similar kinship practices and positive bonds can be replicated. One of the most important lessons she learned from her grandmother was that servant leaders should seek to protect the community circle by building environments where individuals with a wide range of identities and ways of being in the world can feel that they belong while sharing their gifts for the benefit of all. As our research shows, Sylvia managed to foster these spaces in varying degrees within different levels of the organizational modus operandi. In response to a highly diverse composition of the staff members, she encouraged the creation of an internal knowledge transfer structure and a consultation body—the OFIFC Traditional Council—offering individuals with distinct sense of Indigenous identity a meaningful opportunity to access a wide range of cultural supports and pick up ceremonial responsibilities. The Traditional Council helps to activate the four-fold practice and articulate Indigenous leadership principles in urban settings by creating ceremonial spaces where Elders and traditional teachers can share stories about leaders who inspired them and who were, in many instances, well-respected members of their own families. These opportunities encourage the learners to apply the fourfold practice in an act of seeking meaningful connections between the experiences of the past leaders and the contemporary governance challenges faced by urban Indigenous communities. Once a particular teaching is shared, the community members have a chance to reflect on it and incorporate it into their own ceremonial and leadership practices.
Within the broader context of the Friendship Centre communities, Sylvia has supported circles of care, mentorship networks, leadership training and diversion-prevention programming to address the multilayered social and economic issues experienced by Indigenous youth and secure their participation in urban Indigenous governance. Following the belief that the leadership can only truly embrace the principle of service if everybody’s place and perspective is honored, Sylvia has advocated for greater inclusion and increased agency of gender fluid people, and encouraged behavioral standards that place value on the unique gifts, skills and knowledge of the community members instead of their titles.
While reified interpretations of maternal/grandmaternal leadership can reinforce heteropatriarchy and limit women’s governing influence (Kuokkanen, 2019) Sylvia has successfully incorporated different aspects of these roles in her leadership. We see this as a demonstration that the restoration of cultural traditions can transcend rigid and exclusionary understandings of Indigenous identities and contribute to creating healthier communities. Intergenerational trauma and marginalization impacting Indigenous communities coupled with the denial of the expertise of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQ+ people, and discriminatory attitudes in their encounters with institutions that are meant to serve them, are among the main factors maintaining gendered oppression and curtail what is possible in decolonizing, self-determining and nation building efforts. One quality that defines leaders who “carry the bones of the people” is the ability to transfer Indigenous knowledge in a way that establishes a clear link between the collective past, present and future, thus helping the community members develop a sense of positionality in time and generate desired social change.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical approval
This study has been reviewed and approved by the University of Guelph Research Ethics Board and the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by the Early Researcher Award (Ministry of Research and Innovation, Province of Ontario).
