Canada’s largest Indigenous women’s organization has a new president.
Carol McBride was elected to oversee the Native Women’s Association of Canada at NWAC’s annual general assembly on the weekend.
She beat out one other candidate, Adams Lake First Nation Chief Lynn Kenoras-Duck, and replaces Lorraine Whitman who decided not to run again for health reasons.
McBride said she was asked to seek the presidency and decided to go for it after some consideration.
“I had asked a very close friend of mine, ‘What should I do,’” she said. “And he told me that if I had something to give, that I had a responsibility to meet that.”
The new NWAC president is no stranger to politics.
She is a former chief and councillor of the Timiskaming First Nation in northern Quebec and a past grand chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council.
McBride said she plans to bring a consensus building approach to her new role.
“The style that I want for this time is based on the seven grandfather teachings which some of them are respect, honesty, bravery, love…”
The new president will have a number of files to tackle as part of her job including the pressing issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Another priority is collaborations with various groups.
“One of the things I definitely want to work on is partnerships,” McBride said. “Partnerships with out own members, our own PTMAs (provincial, territorial member associations), the grassroots level – we need to work on that. Partnerships with the government as well.”
The NWAC president’s term is three years.
