Mission Statement of CWEIA
This mission is short but meaningful. As an organization, we strive to inspire Cree women to empower and to self-develop themselves. We cannot empower every woman on their behalf, but as an organization, we can inspire by setting up services and projects for women. Empowerment contains the idea of capacity building for individual and women's groups to self-sustain their development as well as working toward gender equality. CWEIA wants to be part of a positive transformation of women's status and roles in Cree and Canadian societies.
We stand to be the voice for all Cree women. In fact, we value women by representing and advocating for gender equity and equality because it's part of our DNA as an organization that represents women. In our mission, valuing women means we advocate to solve women's issues and we play a very significant role in developing and sustaining Eeyou-Eenou Iskweu. We do so through representation but also through significant initiatives of healing, culture and socio-economic development. We support Indigenous women's entrepreneurship, either individually or collectively, in a spirit of solidarity and collectiveness.
Vision
This short vision is external-oriented; it expresses where we want Cree women to be. It provides an ideal situation for CWEIA to strive for over the next decades, and it is meaningful for several reasons:
- In the future, we aspire for Cree women to be strong, united and resilient. To become strong and resilient, we must know ourselves and be reconnected with our history and cultural roles — healing, decolonizing, and building our identity as Cree women in a contemporary world, while promoting women's leadership in all spheres of governance.
- Our vision is not centred only on ourselves as Cree women; we also focus on harmonious relationships with our men, our families and our communities, reflecting Cree values of empathy, generosity and sustainability.
- Resilient women mean healthy women and families. We embrace the holistic dimensions of a human being — physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual — including healing and decolonization from past trauma.
- Healthy and balanced families and communities require strong cultural values and traditions, which implies that Cree individuals and organizations such as CWEIA must work continuously on one common foundation: Cree culture, language and traditions.
Core Values
Ten core values we seek to live and work by, with each other and with other Cree and non-Cree entities.
Personal Level
- Strong identity and self-cared women
- Empowerment and healthy women
- Strong culture and traditions as guidelines for actions
- Respectful attitude and relationships with each other
Organizational Level
- Unity and supportive of one another
- Openness for change, innovative ideas and on sensitive issues
- Fair and consensus-oriented decision-making, considering all aspects of the issue(s)
- Shared leadership roles
- Clear communication and honesty