Ten First Nations women will be attending a leadership conference this May designed to encourage more women to run for municipal and First Nation band elections in eastern Nova Scotia, thanks to support from StFX’s Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership. The Leadership School for Women will be run by Government FOCUS (Female Objectives Cape Breton Unama’ki Strait).
The conference is hosted by the Town of Port Hawkesbury. Organizers there had put out a call to local governments asking if they could help participants with child care and travel costs to help remove barriers to participate. However, organizers were disappointed to find out that Richmond County councillors decided not to support the event.
“Given that championing leadership initiatives for women, and in particular Indigenous women, is a key aspect of our mandate, the Advisory Board of the McKenna Centre quickly took action and unanimously voted in favour of supporting the event. I was able to write to Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton the same day to offer our help,” says Dr. Mathias Nilges, Director of the McKenna Centre and StFX English professor.
Additionally, he says StFX’s Human Kinetics Department is also committing to support conference participants with free play, active and inclusive childcare, and the university’s Extension Department has offered to help with promoting the event.
