“there are people who have titles, and there are people who are leaders.”

“there are people who have titles, and there are people who are leaders.”

Strong Women Stories- Sylvia Maracle

In this essay, Sylvia Maracle investigates the difference between the two, the role colonization plays in the distinction, and where women are situated in the middle of it all.
“Some of our current notions of leadership were formed during the time that women were totally excluded from politics.”
She mentions how when the First Nations first began to meet with Westerners regarding treaties, the Natives brought their women leaders, but the Europeans brought only men. She said the Europeans were not interested in the women, and they maintain that position. This is evident in the Indian Act, which excluded women from the political processes.
She talks about how the women began gathering informally and discussing what to do about the problems within the urban social structures and ways of life of their people. These women began not only to advocate, but make things happen.
They created the early Friendship Centres.
“Sometimes Native women did it alone, and sometimes these centres were created through networks with other non-profit community groups or government agencies.”
These services, which originally started with tea and talk, eventually grew into instrumental community centers that would address housing, employment, addiction, etc.
Maracle calls these women ‘agents of change’. This is where the distinction between those with titles and leaders becomes clear. Many of these women didn’t have title but they were the one who got things done.
“Early in our development, it was these natural leaders who worked to change our communities, and these leaders were, in overwhelming numbers, women.”
Maracle talks about how the men were rushing to keep up, and many tried to take credit for what the women had done.
As a result the women have been working toward improving the political processes that dictate who become leaders in the government.
“Our development as peoples has been characterized by this tension between formal male leadership and informal female leadership, and there have been too few opportunities to recognize and celebrate what our women have done or to explore the distinct qualities of our women’s leadership.”
She later moves on to discuss the role that mentoring plays in keeping these processes moving forward. She talks about how the women who got things started not only fulfilled their responsibilities to the people as leaders, but they also made the time to involve the young people in the process so as to teach them to continue their work when the time came to hand over the reins to the next generation.
“We have to make time to talk with our young people, especially young women, and to help them reflect on and analyze the issues that shape our leadership role.”
Indeed.