Last week CILT and our community joined in mourning the passing of Indigenous elder and disability advocate Wanda Whitebird on November 14th, 2024.
In 1986, Elder Wanda Whitebird moved to Ontario from the east coast and performed support work with Indigenous inmates experiencing traumatic harm in Ontario’s prison system. She made a tremendous impact working over 13 years at Anishnawbe Health and pioneered harm reduction work as an outreach worker for the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy (OAHAS) for several years.
For over 14 years, Wanda, as a leader with the organization No More Silence, led the annual Valentine’s Day Strawberry Ceremony in downtown Toronto in honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-spirited people. When Wanda became a wheelchair user around 2019 after a spinal cord injury, she extended her activism to the disability community.
No More Silence partnered with CILT on a project called the Disability Justice and Indigeneity Project. The activities included Wanda facilitating focus groups with Indigenous community members with disabilities who had experienced systemic and sometimes traumatic barriers with accessing ceremonial spaces and the production of educational videos in which Wanda advocated for Indigenous community organizations providing accessible cultural spaces as a human right.
The project was to culminate with the building of an accessible sweat lodge, and we were thrilled to hear that this past summer the Raonraon Hummingbird Healing Lodge was built on the Six Nations Reserve in Brantford and that Wanda led accessible sweats there that included Indigenous participants in the project.
Wanda was a beloved member of our community, and her absence will be profoundly felt by all who knew her. Her contributions and spirit have left an indelible mark, and she will be remembered with much love and respect.
Wanda was also scheduled as a guest speaker for CILT’s upcoming International Day of Persons with Disabilities event on December 3rd. We will instead be sharing a tribute for Wanda and invite everyone to join as we will share more about the impact Wanda had on CILT, disability communities and our cherished relationship with her.
We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and all who were touched by her wisdom and kindness. Below are some pictures from the celebration of life event that took place on Friday, November 22nd in recognition of Wanda:
