Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Canada’s first Indigenous female MP, has been named to the Order of Canada by Governor General Mary Simon.
Blondin-Andrew, born in Tulita, served as the MP for the Western Arctic riding from 1988 to 2006, making her the longest-serving parliamentarian in the Northwest Territories’ history.
In appointing her an Officer of the Order of Canada, Simon said on Wednesday that Blondin-Andrew deserved recognition for her “longstanding advocacy of northern and Indigenous people, languages and culture at all levels of government.”
Blondin-Andrew has described fleeing Inuvik’s Grollier Hall residential school as a child and surviving tuberculosis before graduating from the University of Alberta and returning to the North, where she taught and promoted Indigenous languages.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
As an MP, she rose to become a Liberal minister responsible for children and youth and a minister of state for northern development.
She later chaired the Sahtu Secretariat for nine years.
The date of her investiture ceremony in Ottawa has yet to be confirmed.
Blondin-Andrew was among 85 new appointments to the Order of Canada announced on Wednesday.
