Native Women's Association of Canada plagued by funding cuts, infighting

The new headquarters of the Native Women’s Association of Canada will now be largely empty. An apprenticeship program in several smaller projects that administered ended in March, and so did $48 million in federal funding, leaving this to start the fiscal year with $10 million. That is a very significant decrease. Enwak, as it’s called, has survived for decades on project funding, which came to an abrupt end. CEO Lynn Grew says. It doesn’t feel like reconciliation in action. Well, it’s not. It’s obviously not. Association has suffered through public infighting, leadership coups and allegations of a toxic workplace. Most recently, critics took issue with how they spend money, something the Indigenous services minister also seems concerned with. Listen, the organization right now is going through a forensic audit, and I’ll have more to say when that’s complete. I’m fully confident that ENWAK has complied with the rules, the heart of the money matter, the need of women’s associations foray into business. We’re doing our best to try to find ways to supplement our revenues. And one of those ways, Melissa, that Enwak is is is doing is by generating our own source revenue. Plan to buy a boutique hotel on top of their two luxury resiliency lodges and these high end event rental spaces. Today I’m sitting here in Anwar’s Event Center that we built with the goal and the intention to generate our own revenues and lessen our dependency on taxpayers dollars and government funding. How does that serve, you know, grassroots women? How does that make a difference in our life? You know, Crystals Magnus left her job here as a cultural support and knowledge keeper last year. A lot of, you know, dysfunction, a lot of, you know, mismanagement and the the administrative, you know, follow through of what they were actually trying to do just was not there. Like many, she feels the association should have stuck with its roots in advocacy. So we were bringing a lot of awareness to the missing and murdered women. Bridget Tully worked with Nwac’s Sisters in Spirit project, largely credited with putting missing and murdered Indigenous women on the national agenda back in 2004. We want to solve the unsolved and we want to, you know, open up all the unresolved cases that the police messed up on, you know? Funding for that ended in 2010 and some field in women’s organization lost its way soon after. Yes, I’m happy. I’m happy this happened because you know, we deserve a lot more. Samagonis hopes it’s not the end, just a pause. Oh no, There should be a fixing. There should be, Like I said, Indigenous engagements, meaningful Indigenous engagement. It’s in the hands of Ottawa to determine if Enwak gets that chance. Melissa Ridge and Global News Winnipeg.