Led by CHRR Visiting Scholar Sandra Delaronde and CHRR Director Dr. Adele Perry, Calling for Justice and Re-imagining Governance is part of the 2025 Knowledge Synthesis Grant competition funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and UK Research and Innovation Arts and Humanities Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. The 2025 competition focused on the theme “Envisioning Governance Systems that Work“, which calls to imagine collaborative and proactive approaches to governance to face today’s multifaceted issues.

Calling for Justice and Re-imagining Governance aims to bring together knowledge on the interconnected historical and contemporary factors contributing to the systemic marginalization of Indigenous women to outline actionable steps towards rematriation – to restoring Indigenous women’s human rights and leadership roles. Our goal is to document its impacts on Indigenous women and gender diverse people with an eye to women’s leadership, policymaking, and governance systems, to outline actional steps towards restoring Indigenous women’s human rights and leadership roles. From an intersectional lens, this project aims to:

• Provide a synthesis of the literature with a focus on the Indian Act, internally displaced persons (IDPs), treaty-making, and the impacts of policy on economic security and well-being with an emphasis on the experiences of Indigenous women in the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta;
• Document the ways that Indigenous communities are working to create spaces that centre the voices of Indigenous women in governance systems; and
• Identify holistic reforms to restore Indigenous women’s and gender diverse people’s human rights, economic prosperity, and safety.

This project is the brainchild of Sandra Delaronde, Project Lead of Giganawenimaanaanig (we take care of them all), the Manitoba MMIWG2S+ Implementation Committee and CHRR’s Visiting Community Researcher. A longtime advocate, community connector, and educator, Sandra approached the CHRR explaining the need for research that would explore questions of the involvement and inclusion of Indigenous women in governance structures; and systems of governance, key questions that are outlined in the “Envisioning Governance Systems that Work” funding opportunity.

This project is inspired by and responds directly to the Calls for Justice, in particular Call 1.4 which demands “urgent and special measures to ensure that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are represented in… governance and leadership.”