Indigenous woman to lead reconciliation centre

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This article was published 11/03/2021 (1864 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AMPLIFYING the voices of Indigenous women will be a priority for the new executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

For the first time, the centre named an Indigenous woman to the top post.

Stephanie Scott, who was director of operations and has been involved with the Winnipeg-based centre since 2010, called the promotion a “gift.”

“It’s a lot of very important work, and we need to do it on behalf of survivors, and I don’t do this work alone,” she said.

Scott said she hopes to highlight the voices of Indigenous women.

“Women are taking back some power as matriarchs in the community, as knowledge-keepers, providing wisdom,” she said. “Being an Indigenous woman, I’ve worked very, very hard over the past 20, 30 years.”

The centre is on the University of Manitoba campus, which has faced its own hurdles in advancing Indigenous leadership — two Indigenous administrators at the university have left since 2018, both citing systemic racism. Scott said working on behalf of students entering the institution is one of her priorities. She credited the work of vice-president (Indigenous) Catherine Cook.

“I’m a brown-skinned Indigenous woman, you know. I still go into stores and get followed, it doesn’t matter what I’ve achieved in this society… I think the university has made great strides,” Scott said.

“Not a perfect world, but with Dr. Cook as vice-president, I think we’re absolutely going to go places and make changes for the students.”

Scott has worn many hats throughout her career, including working at CBC, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, the National Film Board and doing community outreach work. She was born and raised in Winnipeg, but her family is from Roseau River First Nation. She was adopted by a non-Indigenous family during the Sixties Scoop and said she was surrounded by racism as she grew up away from her culture.

She said she gained perspective on her “tumultuous” upbringing when she had twin daughters.

“It really, really made me wake up. The lifestyle I was engaging in changed because it was no longer just me, I had two little children to raise. (It) was super important to give them a good life and make change,” she said.

She credits the love of her daughters and four grandchildren as the driving force behind her work. In her new job, Scott said she will work on a review of the records the NCTR has on missing Indigenous children who didn’t return home from residential schools.

The centre recently received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to develop a database to make its archives more accessible to the public.

For other Indigenous women in Winnipeg who may look to her as an inspiration, Scott said hard work and collaboration are key.

“Learn from others, look for mentors. There are so many gifted elders, survivors, knowledge-keepers,” she said. “We have professors, teachers, judges, lawyers. There’s a movement happening right now.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_