On International Women’s Day – March 8 – we celebrate the strength, resilience and achievements of women and girls around the world. It is also a reminder to advocate for strategies to further the empowerment to achieve gender equality for Indigenous women. 

At CSFS, we look to the many matriarchs who have built our organization, who continue the work, and who will come next in the pursuit of rebuilding Nations, empowering communities, and protecting our families. We also recognize the vital role they play in the preservation and transmission of traditional knowledge.

Cindy Lowley is a hereditary chief from Lake Babine Nation, and belongs to the Frog Clan. Her Hereditary Chief name is Anandeel. Cindy is also a Community Engagement Facilitator with the Jurisdiction team at CSFS.

Cindy says that matriarchs are a vital pillar to Carrier and Sekani culture, and their responsibilities are what keep communities, families, and children safe. 

“Matriarchs are the ones who oversee the children, and they are tasked with a lot and help raise the children, keep the families together, ensure the head male is supported and well looked after. Matriarchs keeps balance.”

As a hereditary chief, Cindy says that matriarchs have a responsibility to the community and to their clans.

“From a hereditary chief perspective, matriarchs sit together and talk amongst ourselves and pass our thoughts to the spokesman who speaks for us. How we guide and support our clan and leaders – that’s a big role. The matriarch speaks for her family and makes sure that the family is heard and supported.” 

When she thinks about a model matriarch, Cindy thinks about her late grandmother, who has impacted how she acts as a matriarch today.

“My late grandmother, my dad’s mom, she was a big hereditary chief, and my dad was only two or three when his dad died. By that time, my grandmother had 16 kids and had to care for all of them and never met another man so played both roles of the mother and the father.” 

Her grandmother’s responsibilities extended beyond her immediate family, too, says Cindy.

“On top of raising her own children, she went to my great uncles and aunties to help raise their children. I would guess 40 or more kids in total. She lived down by the lake and had to feed them year-round. She had to break the ice to get water, hand washing diapers and clothes in minus 40 weather, to ensure that all cousins were supported, fed, clothed, had a place to sleep, and were loved. She did all that to protect the family. She was living proof of a powerful matriarch.”

With such a strong role model in her life, Cindy has continued her grandmother’s legacy with her own family responsibilities.

“For myself, I make sure my siblings are okay, and make sure that when I speak in the Frog clan, that their siblings and their children are okay and spoken for. Making sure that our family is covered and spoken for, and that your male providers are supported in health and wellness.”

For Carrier people, women guide many of the cultural aspects, such as the clan systems. 

“You follow your mother’s clan. My mom’s clan is frog so I’m frog. My daughters are frog clan, and their children will be frog clan too. We are carried and birthed from women, and that is why we follow their clan.”

At CSFS, many of our founding Elders were women. Back in the late 1980s, elders such as Celena John and Margaret Gagnon, among many others, were concerned with the countless injustices they were seeing in Carrier and Sekani communities. These strong women took action, and from their leadership, CSFS was created. Without their hard work, dedication, and knowledge, CSFS would not be what it is today.

“They’re all the same people that my parents and my grandparents worked with,” says Cindy. “Even though we’re separate nations, we’re all close-knit people. People like Celena John and Susan Abraham in Takla, I remember my grandparents talking with them. Even though our Nations have different names, the contact between each other has always been there.”

Today, Cindy continues the work of her ancestors, and of our founding matriarchs.

“Being part of this organization, we’re keeping that important work going from our matriarchs. People like Mabel Louie and Helen Michelle. They’ve seen me since birth, and now to be at their side and continue the work they’ve started – I feel good about it. The roles that women play is generational, and that’s how CSFS started. Even my aunty Annette Casimir is at here. It’s a generational thing passed down and that’s how I look at it. When the next matriarchs rise up, it’ll be my turn to sit back and watch. That’s how I see CSFS. I’m honoured to be a part of it.”

Today, the majority of leaders at CSFS are women, and it is their wisdom, their love, and their caring spirit that continue to lead us in rebuilding Nations and protecting Indigenous families.