Reclaiming Indigenous matriarchy with Sandy Ward
Courtesy of Sandy Ward
Sandy Ward, from Lil’wat Nation, is doing what she loves in the outdoors, from snowboarding, to climbing and mountain biking. She is a backcountry enthusiast and snowboard instructor. She hopes to influence more Indigenous youth to get into the outdoors — and is a member of Indigenous Women Outdoors (IWO), which was founded by Myia Antone.
We feel that together, as Indigenous women, we are very powerful. If we can lift each other up, hold each other up, then we have it in us, in our bloodline. We are very strong and we are very resilient. That’s why we have women, and people who identify as women, as the focus in our programming. We get asked this quite often as it’s seen as us only reaching out to half the population. But it’s because we need to, we need to influence these women to come into the roles they used to be. They need to be strong leaders because that’s what we were.
Colour the Trails caught up with Sandy on her love for the outdoors, integrating Indigenous knowledge and creating spaces for Indigenous women with Indigenous Women Outdoors.