The Ontario Native Women's Association (ONWA) from Ontario, Canada will be attending the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide (hosw.com) conference in Sydney, Australia November 26-29, 2018.
ONWA is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1971 to empower and support Indigenous women and their families through cultural restoration. As an agency, ONWA supports and empowers youth to have a voice.
“The Eighth Gathering of Healing Our Spirit Worldwide will bring together Indigenous peoples from around the world to celebrate the power of Indigenous knowledge and wisdom and to share stories with pride and purpose”.
Empowering Youth Leadership:
“Now is the Time of Indigenous Women’s Leadership” - ONWA’s Strategic Picture, released in 2016, outlined ONWA’s responsibility to develop future Indigenous women leaders, and identified bringing a youth delegation to HOSW as a strategic action.
The youth will attend HOSW conference to continue building their capacity as young Indigenous women exercising their inherent leadership. This includes four elected ONWA youth board members and two additional youth who were selected from an application process.
The youth will return to Turtle Island (Ontario) to share their experiences from HOSW conference at ONWA’s “She is Wise” conference in March to share valuable knowledge, cross-cultural learning, and assist in building capacity and leadership of other Indigenous women and youth across Ontario.
Each youth will be mentored for a full year by an ONWA employee, also attending the conference, and will continue to support and empower their leadership, using the experience of HOSW to build capacity of others and improve the lives of other Indigenous youth.
Youth and staff members were required to go through an application process as well as independently fundraise $500 each in order to attend HOSW. Donations and ONWA’s fundraising efforts have provided the additional support required for ONWA to attend.
ONWA’s presentations at HOSW:
ONWA will be presenting two workshops at HOSW: 1) Indigenous Women’s Storytelling and Leadership: Shaking our R.A.T.T.L.E.S. and connecting to culture, spirituality, and stories; and 2) Woman as Medicine: the resurgence of Indigenous women’s leadership roles within our youth.
In addition to acquiring knowledge and wisdom to bring back to Turtle Island (Ontario), ONWA will be using HOSW as an opportunity to share knowledge and wisdom with other Indigenous people across the world.
ONWA has demonstrated incredible leadership and capacity in furthering the lives of Indigenous women and their families and believes that Indigenous women’s leadership is key to the healing of community.
For more information, please contact:
Audra Santa
Media Contact (Sydney, Australia)
(807) 633-9864
audrasanta@gmail.com
Andre Morriseau
Communication Manager, ONWA (Toronto, ON)
(647) 970-7661 amorriseau@onwa.ca
Karen Marconi Marketing Manager,
ONWA (Thunder Bay, ON)
(807) 631-0850
kmarconi@onwa.ca
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