National Thanadelthur Day Bill

Honourable senators, I want to acknowledge that I come from Manitoba, Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation, and that the Parliament of Canada is located on the unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinaabeg territory.

I thank Senator McCallum for bringing this bill to the Senate of Canada to honour the life and legacy of Thanadelthur, a young Indigenous woman with the strength, resilience and fierce determination to protect her people. She was a teenager and an effective ambassador of peace in the early 1700s.

Records from the time speak of her as a skilled guide, peacemaker, interpreter and negotiator who played a crucial role in the expansion of the fur trade in the early 1700s. More importantly, at a time when the Dene and the Cree were traditional enemies, Thanadelthur was the indispensable key to forging peace between the two nations.

Her remarkable story allows us to reflect both on the extraordinary impacts she had in shaping our shared history as a nation and, lamentably, on the many ways in which Indigenous stories, cultural practices and contributions have been ignored for far too long. By supporting sending this bill to committee, we are sending a strong message and affirming our commitment that these Indigenous stories must not continue to be forgotten.

Thanadelthur was a peace builder before Canada became a nation and before Manitoba existed. Thanadelthur was a member of the Dene Nation, Indigenous to the sub-Arctic region of what is now known as Nunavut and northern Manitoba.

In 1713, while on a caribou-hunting expedition with her family, she was captured by Cree warriors. She managed to escape after a year of captivity, and, after a harrowing journey, she came back to her family, very near death. At that time, she lived in York Factory, an early Hudson’s Bay Company trading post.

Thanadelthur’s great work came about a few years later, in 1715, when she was employed as the guide, interpreter and negotiator for the Hudson’s Bay Company in their efforts to establish peaceful relations between the Cree and the Dene. Her Dene, Cree and English trilingualism, her tenacity and perseverance, and her skill as a negotiator led to a historic peace agreement between the two traditionally warring peoples. I mark the wisdom, humility and the depth of character of this young woman in choosing to forgo any feelings of revenge or hostility toward those who were her traditional enemies and her captors; instead, she chose to forge a path to peace.

The Hudson’s Bay records from that period make it clear that peace would have been unattainable without her pivotal role. In June 1715, a delegation of 150 people set out on a peace mission and travelled some 1,000 kilometres in eight months, pushing through an Arctic winter. It was Thanadelthur’s guidance and determination that kept the delegates from turning back. It was her skill and knowledge that kept them from perishing in the wild, and, ultimately, it was her fortitude that saw the final peace accord implemented.

To quote from a record of that period:

She made them all stand in fear of her as she scolded at some . . . and forced them to be at peace.

Remember that this is a teenager.

Her voice was said to be hoarse from persuading her people.

Sadly, she succumbed to illness less than two years later and died on February 5, 1717, buried in York Fort. Hers is a story that still resonates within Cree and Dene communities in their oral history to this day.

Examining her story from a distance of over 300 years, we can learn modern lessons. Thanadelthur is but an early example of the tireless leadership and resolute quality of Indigenous women who both nurture as mothers and protect as warriors. I think of contemporary Thanadelthurs who, despite obstacles, hardship and opposition, are similarly leading restorative peace and reconciliation efforts in our own time — Indigenous activists like the late Mary Two-Axe Earley, Cindy Blackstock, Pam Palmater, Leslie Spillett, Autumn Peltier, Diane Redsky and our former senator colleagues the Honourable Sandra Lovelace Nicholas and the Honourable Lillian Dyck.

In this place today, we are blessed with Indigenous women leaders who were all esteemed trailblazers before agreeing to be named to this chamber: senators Michèle Audette, Mary Jane McCallum, Yvonne Boyer, Margo Greenwood and Judy White. I think of Inuit leader Rosemarie Kuptana; artist Daphne Odjig; Manitoba’s own Jackie Traverse; and my family’s beloved friend, the legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, now 93 and working on her fifty-fourth film.

Indigenous women and girls play a key role in preserving their communities. They often act as agents of peace, leading movements that eventually bring warring parties to the negotiation table. These strong, clear Indigenous women leaders are often the first to speak truth to power, including within their own communities, to address the root causes of conflicts and increase community engagement.

When I go home to Manitoba, I am honoured to receive guidance from three of Winnipeg’s most effective leaders — Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, Sandra DeLaronde and Diane Redsky — to discuss international advocacy in multilateral processes. Last year, they led the largest delegation of Indigenous women ever to arrive in Geneva to participate in the review of Canada under CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Before coming to this chamber, I was a professor, who, with a team of students in our human rights program at the University of Winnipeg’s Global College, ensured that Canada’s first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security noted the importance of domestic peace building and Indigenous women’s leadership. International studies have conclusively shown that women’s participation in peace agreements leads to better and more sustainable outcomes with higher rates of implementation.

Honouring this historic and heroic peace builder, Thanadelthur, through the passage of this bill also honours Indigenous women as leaders. As a lesson in progress, I’m pleased to note that Canada’s third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security sets out efforts aimed at addressing gender-based discrimination, violence, oppression and marginalization faced by women and gender diverse people in Canada, particularly Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people. It acknowledges the intersecting discrimination and violence based on gender, Indigenous identity, socio-economic status and other identity factors.

The second lesson I draw from her story is more sombre because Thanadelthur is also a symbol of unknown, effaced and obscured Indigenous voices, stories sadly forgotten or deliberately erased if not for the oral traditions that keep their lights burning. Remembering Thanadelthur speaks to our ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Research shows Indigenous women are 400% more likely than other Canadians to go missing. The problem is so pervasive that the Canadian government does not know how many Indigenous women are missing or have been murdered.

Ironically, these are the women who are overpoliced and under-protected. Estimates suggest that around 4,000 Indigenous women have been lost. Thanadelthur’s own grave has been lost. The land of the original Fort York has eroded and been washed out to sea. Without a monument to mark her resting place, a beautiful tradition has developed in northern Manitoba. In Churchill, there is a square in the town that says “Thanadelthur Square,” and in northern Manitoba, to mark the date of her passing, people lay red roses into the waters of the Hudson Bay.

Senator McCallum, in speaking to her bill, brought another modern dimension to this historic tale, as she shared aspects of her own Cree upbringing in Manitoba and the ongoing joining of Cree and Dene communities across boundary lines. History is a living, growing thing. When history is “herstory,” wisdom transcends time.

To conclude, Thanadelthur’s contributions provide a powerful example of the importance of commemorating Indigenous histories, as called for in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 79, which calls for the federal government “. . . to develop a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration . . . .” It continues, saying that this would include “. . . contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canada’s history.”

Moving this bill to committee moves Canada a step toward actualizing our commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our domestic law adopting that declaration.

I commend Senator McCallum for introducing us to Thanadelthur and to the act to establish a national Thanadelthur day. My last point is to remind us of Senator McCallum’s bill establishing the National Ribbon Skirt Day. At first, there was some difficulty persuading senators to speak to that bill. It did pass, and now, across this nation, on National Ribbon Skirt Day, there are celebrations of little girls and whole generations in Longhouses, community centres and legislatures celebrating National Ribbon Skirt Day.

It is her acute sense of community and her ability to take the pulse of people in Canada that we see in Senator McCallum’s bills. This is yet another instance of that, and it gives us a tremendous opportunity to be part of celebrating and respecting Indigenous leadership in this country.

I hope we are ready to call the question. Thank you, meegwetch.

Senator McPhedran, would you take a question?

With pleasure.

Thank you very much for the question, Senator Osler. I think, more than anything, that International Women’s Day is a day when communities come together to focus on the contributions of women to their communities, their countries and the world. Having a young heroine from 300 years ago finally being recognized as a peace builder, a negotiator and a trilingual diplomat, essentially, would be a tremendous addition to how Canadians could think about International Women’s Day and celebrate women’s contributions.

Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(Motion agreed to and bill read second time.)