“The work of a leader is to carry the bones of the people”: exploring female-led articulation of Indigenous knowledge in an urban setting

Abstract

Although the activism and historic contributions of Indigenous female leaders to urban Indigenous community development across Turtle Island are recognized, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding the specific mechanisms that enabled Indigenous women to successfully articulate cultural knowledge and inform their management styles by traditional ways. The article explores some of the contributions of female leadership to the governance and program design of a large, culture-based urban Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada—the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC). We examine how the OFIFC’s Executive Director Sylvia Maracle (Skonaganleh:ra) has applied leadership principles grounded in Indigenous knowledge of her paternal grandmother and a Mohawk matriarch—Mary Ellen Maracle—to address specific challenges in urban Indigenous governance. We argue that the female-led articulation of Indigenous knowledge in organizational operations contributed to creating a community of service that respects distinct expressions of cultural and gender identity.