Group nominates 3 'iconic' Indigenous women for new bank note

A writer and poet, and two activists have been put forward as three "iconic" Indigenous women who should be considered for recognition on a Canadian bank note — though only two of them meet the qualifications.

The Canadian government said last month that a woman would be featured on a Canadian bill, and asked for suggestions. The nomination period closed last week.

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) collectively settled on three names — Pauline Johnson, a Mohawk woman who became an acclaimed writer, poet and performer in the late 1800s; Annie Mae Aquash, a Mi'kmaq activist who was part of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s; and Shannen Koostachin, a young Cree activist from Attawapiskat, Ont. who fought for equitable education funding for First Nations children.

Koostachin, however, does not meet one of the Bank of Canada's qualifying criteria, which says the nominee must be at least 25 years deceased. Koostachin died in 2010.

"It's important to make a point with this particular nomination, that maybe it's the criteria that is the problem and not the nomination," said Dawn Lavell-Harvard, NWAC's president.

"To suggest that she is not a hero worthy of being on the currency simply because she hasn't been dead long enough is an arbitrary criteria, and we think it should be reconsidered."

Nominations closed last week and the Bank of Canada released a list of qualifying nominees "so far." Johnson and Aquash are listed, but Koostachin is not.

'Perpetuating our own invisibility'

Lavell-Harvard admits that her organization was initially unsure whether to make any nominations, seeing Canadian currency as a symbol "of a colonial government" and making nominations as "participating in our own oppression, so to speak."

In the end, NWAC decided it was better to ensure Indigenous names made the list.

"It would have gone forward absent of names of Indigenous women. And by our very absence, therefore, further perpetuating our own invisibility within the larger Canadian history," Lavell-Harvard said.

"We would have had an entire list full of very French or English women heroes."

Lavell-Harvard said Pauline Johnson was nominated because of her efforts to celebrate and preserve Indigenous tradition and culture at a time when Aboriginal people were discouraged from embracing their heritage and identity.

"That kind of strength and resilience needs to be celebrated," she said.

Aquash, who was murdered in 1975, was named because of her advocacy for Indigenous empowerment and sovereignty. She was born in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia and moved to the U.S. in the 1960s, becoming part of the controversial American Indian Movement.

"You know there's a very common saying: 'well behaved women rarely make history,'" Lavell-Harvard said. 

"Indigenous women who are fighting for our rights against our own government are unquestionably and always controversial figures."

All the nominations will be reviewed by an advisory council, made up of academic and cultural leaders. A short list will then go to the Governor of the Bank of Canada and Canada's minister of finance, with the minister making the final decision.