Beginning with Elsie Knott, the first female chief in Canada, Cora Voyageur presents the lives of sixty-four of the ninety women chiefs who have assumed the traditionally male role of elected First Nations leadership. Using a range of qualitative research strategies, surveys, participant observation, interviews, and discussions with focus groups, Voyageur presents the colonial histories behind the issues that contemporary Aboriginal communities struggle with and delineates the resulting leadership dilemmas for chiefs, while also articulating a story that is unique to First Nations women.

Dr. Cora Voyageur is First Nations and a sociologist at the University of Calgary. Her research explores the indigenous experience in Canada. Her books include Firekeepers of the Twenty-First Century: First Nations Women Chiefs and My Heroes Have Always Been Indians. She co-edited Hidden in Plain Sight: Contributions of Aboriginal Peoples to Canadian Identity and Culture, Volumes I and II. Dr. Laura Brearley coordinates the Deep Listening Project, an international creative exchange between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, musicians, and researchers. The Project grew out of the Koori Cohort of Researchers that she established at RMIT University and Monash University. Laura is a creative research specialist and an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Brian Calliou has been the Program Director of The Banff Centre's Indigenous Leadership and Management since August 2003. His work has appeared in various academic journals and books including Indigenous Peoples and the Modern State and Power and Resistance: Critical Thinking about Canadian Issues. His research interests include Aboriginal leadership, self-government, economic development, Aboriginal and treaty rights.

Cora Voyageur's profile page

Firekeepers of the Twenty-First Century: First Nations Women Chiefs