A Wiikwemkoong Elder could be featured on Canada’s $20 bill following a campaign to have an Indigenous woman featured on the note.
CEO of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Lynne Groulx, says they launched the “Change the Bill” in January, a campaign aiming to get an Indigenous woman featured on the bill to acknowledge contributions made in Canada.
She says one of the proposed designs features the late Josephine Mandamin, (MAN-duh-min) of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.
Mandamin, known as the Water Woman, walked around the Great Lakes from 2003 to 2017 to bring awareness to the problems of water pollution and environmental degradation on the Great Lakes and Indigenous reserves in Canada.
Groulx says Mandamin’s commemorative design was submitted by Adrienne Assinewai of Manitoulin Island.
She adds more than 20,000 signatures have been gathered on the petition, which will be submitted to the central bank this Spring for their consideration.
Assinewai is a visual artist born and raised on Manitoulin Island. She grew up surrounded by her traditional culture and nature and was driven to share these treasures with others from a young age. Now based along the coastline of New Brunswick, Adrienne continues to be inspired by the natural world and creates from her private home studio. She chose to depict Josephine Mandamin/Biidaasige-baname. Her traditional name translates to “The one who comes with the light” and she carried her name well. For her activism, Mandamin was awarded the Anishinabek Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Cross in 2018.
Her great-niece, Autumn Peltier, followed in Mandamin’s footsteps, becoming the next generation’s “water warrior” and is the Anishinabek Nation’s Water Commissioner.
Check out the various designs and sign the petition at https://www.changethebill.ca/