Logo designed by Brigitte Benning (photo from the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre Facebook page)

By Emily Keller

grande prairie friendship centre

Symposium on gender equality to go next month

Jan 24, 2020 | 5:30 AM

The Grande Prairie Friendship Centre will be hosting the Indigenous Iskwew+ In Leadership Symposium next month.

Iskwew is the Cree word for woman.

The symposium is to go on both February 13 and 14 at the Pomeroy Inn.

Delaine Lambert-English, the symposium coordinator for the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre, says the symposium will have three panels and three specific themes.

“One of the topics is resiliency, one of the topics is empowerment and the last topic is passion. So, what we would love to do is have the panelists share their story of resiliency and talk about how they turned that into a passion, and how to work in a strength-based environment, and how to welcome people into the circle.”

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Lambert-English says they applied for a grant last year through Women and Gender Equality Canada to host the event, and that the funding is a commemoration project for missing and murdered indigenous women and two-spirit people.

“We want to change that negative stigma about Indigenous women. We are more than just a statistic, there are some phenomenal women in the communities, putting their nose down and doing really good work, and we want to give those women, who are our panelists, a chance to share their message.”

The symposium will also feature a keynote address from Dr. James Makokis and Anthony Johnson, who recently won Amazing Race Canada and were the first Indigenous, two-spirit couple to compete. They will also be available for a meet and greet during the tea and bannock mixer at the event.

Lambert-English adds that event is open for everyone to attend.

“This event is open to both indigenous and non-indigenous, it’s open to women and men and two-spirit peoples and gender non-conforming. It is a highly inclusive event, and I think when we’re speaking about gender equality, those are the type of events that need to happen, the events where everyone is welcome in the circle.”

A schedule and full list of panelists, speakers and performers, along with a brief biography for them, can be found at here. Registration for the event can also be completed there.

The deadline to register for the event is February 5.