Latest news with #IndspireAward
CBC
11-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
25-year-old makes history as Birdtail Sioux's youngest and 1st female chief
It was a busy 24 hours for Tréchelle Bunn, the newly elected chief of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation in Manitoba. On the evening of April 9, Bunn received an Indspire Award in Vancouver. The next day, Bunn was back home in her community about 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg as polls closed for the chief and council election. Bunn, 25, was elected with 191 votes, while her opponent Gloria Chalmers-Rach got 85 votes. She is the first woman to be elected as chief in her nation. She is also now the youngest serving chief in Manitoba. The former University of Calgary Dinos and Manitoba Bison hockey player previously served as Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) youth chief. She'll serve a four-year term and Bunn joked that it would take time to get used to introducing herself as just "chief." "I'm used to introducing myself as youth chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization, but I gave that up on March 31 when a new SCO youth chief and council were elected," she said. SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels congratulated Bunn in a news release. "You make many people so very proud as we witness your growth, and the acknowledgement, of your leadership," Daniels said in the statement. "Chief Tréchelle Bunn, I look forward to continuing to learn from and collaborate with you, as you take on your new role of Chief of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation." Rushing home from Indspire Awards However, it was not the last piece of youth leadership that Bunn needed to wrap up before the polls closed on election day. The night before her victory, Bunn was a youth recipient of a 2025 Indspire Award, a national award honouring achievements and contributions of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Bunn was recognized for her work as SCO youth chief and as founder and race director of the Reconciliation Run in her community. She received her award and pin the night before the main gala, as she needed to return home for the election. The day of the election, Bunn boarded a flight and arrived in Winnipeg at 1 p.m., made it to Birdtail Sioux at 5 p.m., while the polls closed at 8 p.m. She said her parents were texting her updates from the ballot counting. "When they posted the results on Facebook of how many votes I had, it was a pretty surreal feeling, then seconds later, people were driving into my grandparents' yard honking their horns," she said. An elder from the community joined Bunn's own grandfather in the living room of the Bunn family home with a drum and sang her a victory song. "It was a really emotional time, and everything happened so fast, but it's something I'm going to cherish for the rest of my life," she said. Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Chief Angela Levasseur also congratulated Bunn on her election win, in a news release. "As a fellow woman chief, I want you to know that I stand with you and am here to support you in any way I can," she said in a statement. "Our nations are stronger when we uplift one another, and I look forward to building that strength together." Other results from the election saw Carson Benn, Doug Hanska Sr., Heath Bunn, and Samantha D. Benn elected as council members.
CBC
07-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Memorial University calling for input on new Indigenous verification policy
Social Sharing Memorial University is looking for public input on an upcoming policy that will see Indigenous students and faculty asked to verify their Indigenous identity before accessing grants, scholarships and jobs set aside for Indigenous-only applicants. The university announced Monday it had completed a draft policy and would accept public input for the next four weeks. Verification policies are "something that Indigenous people, here and across the country, really are calling for," said Catharyn Andersen, MUN's vice-president of Indigenous affairs. "There's a reason why we have those opportunities ... we should be sure that they're going to Indigenous students and Indigenous people." Memorial University would join eight other post-secondary schools in Canada that have implemented a similar policy in recent years, she said. Those schools include Waterloo, McGill and Saskatchewan. A final policy will ideally go into effect in the fall, Andersen said. Students and faculty can still self-identify as Indigenous, but any funding or employment for Indigenous applicants would require them to adhere to the verification process and provide proof of membership in a recognized Indigenous group. The verification committee will look at whether an Indigenous group has recognition under Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, she said, or whether the group is recognized as Indigenous by their federally recognized Indigenous neighbours. "It incorporates Indigenous ways of recognizing one another as well," Andersen said. The policy follows the high-profile firing of former president Vianne Timmons, who for years claimed to be a member of an unrecognized Mi'kmaw band. After a CBC report in 2023 on the veracity of her ancestry, Timmons returned her Indspire Award. Andersen says Timmons's case didn't prompt the university to draft a verification policy, but it did speed up the timeline. "It's hard to argue that it didn't have an impact," Andersen said.
