CSKT women present at UN Commission

L to R: Geri Hewankorn and Nancy Gaynor, members of the Kootenai and Salish tribes, give a joint presentation during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings in New York recently. (Courtesy photo)

Geraldine Hewankorn of Big Arm, Montana participated in a panel on “Rural Women, Technology, and Access to Education, Training and Employment” in conjunction with the recent United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings in New York. The session, organized by the Rural Development Leadership Network (RDLN), was held on Thursday, March 3 at the United Nations Church Centre at 777 UN Plaza.

The session was one of a series of events held by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) during the meeting of governmental representatives at the UN. The Commission on the Status of Women’s theme for this year was “Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.”

Ms. Hewankorn, who made a joint presentation with Nancy Gaynor of Whitefish, focused on entrepreneurship, recommending that women use existing assets as a way to gain income through self-employment at this time when jobs are scarce. The two women focused on cultural tourism in their presentation. Others focused on access to Internet and computers, online networking, barriers to farm-worker women’s participation, need for infrastructure, and the importance of advocacy in their presentations. The panel was followed by dialogue with women attending from around the world.

Ms. Hewankorn, a member of the Kootenai Nation, works at the KwaTaqNuk Resort. Previously, Ms. Hewankorn worked with the Ktunaxa Community Development Corporation in Elmo, which brought in 18 units of self-help housing. She has recently worked to establish an artists’ cooperative in the area.

In 2002, RDLN Leaders on the Flathead Reservation hosted RDLN’s National Network Assembly, along with Salish Kootenai College. Others who have participated from Montana in the RDLN program, in addition to Ms. Gaynor and Ms. Hewankorn, are Suzanne Kinkade, Naida Lefthand, Monica Caye, Clarissa Nichols, Michele Lansdowne, Zana McDonald, and Angie Main.

The other participants in the RDLN panel at CSW were RDLN Leaders Martha Beatty, the Director of Community Outreach Advocates in Hoke County, NC; Shirley McClain, RDLN Issues Coordinator and former executive director of the North Carolina Hunger Network; Mily Treviño-Sauceda, President Emeritus of Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas and an RDLN Board Member; and Michelle Cole Barnes, RDLN Leader and owner and director of Eagles Nest Foster Care Home, Aliceville, AL.

Starry Krueger, President of the Rural Development Leadership Network, moderated the session. Earlier the same day, Ms. Krueger addressed the official CSW body in a General Discussion session. Her statement advocated for the inclusion of more grassroots rural women in United Nations events and urged that they be actively involved in planning next year’s session, for which the theme is “The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.”

After the presentations by RDLN Leaders in the March 3 panel, women from Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe joined the dialogue with the RDLN participants, speaking from the experience of their respective countries, cultures, and organizations. They expressed appreciation for the chance to focus on rural issues and to participate in a discussion based on community experience rather than simply statistics or theory. They also expressed enthusiasm for being part of RDLN’s proposed ongoing collaborative efforts to raise the voices of rural women within the UN though the new Rural Caucus within the CSW structure. The Rural Caucus met on Friday, March 4 at the UN Church Center.

The Rural Development Leadership Network, a national, multicultural social change organization based in New York City, was founded in 1983 to support community-based development in poor rural areas through hands-on projects, education, leadership development and networking. In 1995, RDLN organized a delegation of forty-plus community-based rural women to participate in the NGO Forum on Women in China, where they presented a series of workshops and cultural events. RDLN participants were also represented at the NGO Forum on Food Security during the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996, and the World Conference on Racism in South Africa in 2001. RDLN representatives have taken part in UN NGO meetings since 1994.