Hilda Anderson-Pyrz is a proud member of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation (OPCN) and a nationally respected Indigenous leader whose work turns lived experience into powerful advocacy and systemic change.

As Chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle Inc., she brings the strength of a survivor and the perspective of a family member directly impacted by the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people (MMIWG2S+). Her leadership is grounded in deep community connection and frontline expertise.

Hilda’s work is rooted in the understanding that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are sacred. She is committed to centering the voices of families and survivors, and to advancing Indigenous-led, rightsbased, and decolonizing approaches to justice and healing. Her advocacy is guided by cultural knowledge, humility, and a vision for self-determined futures for all Indigenous peoples.

Raised on the shores of South Indian Lake and Rusty River, Hilda’s early life was shaped by the land and the teachings of her late father, a commercial fisherman and trapper. These foundations instilled a deep sense of identity, responsibility, and purpose—anchored in the strength of her Cree language, values, and traditions.

For over two decades, Hilda has led transformative initiatives at the local, regional, and national levels. She played a key role in creating the MMIWG Liaison Unit at Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc., where she served as Director for five years. Her leadership has also extended to the Families First Foundation and the Manitoba MMIWG Coalition. Whether at community gatherings or international forums like the United Nations, she speaks with the authority of lived experience and the power of collective truth.

Hilda’s lifelong dedication has earned numerous awards recognizing her impact on justice, healing, and systems change.

She is not only an advocate, she is a movement builder, a truth-teller, and a protector of community. With courage and compassion, she carries forward the stories of those who are missing, murdered, and surviving—and calls on all to stand together in building a just future rooted in accountability and action.

Ann Maje Raider is a Kaska grandmother and a member of the Wolf clan in the unceded Kaska Territory in the Southeast Yukon. As the former Chief of Liard First Nation — and the first to be democratically elected —Ann has demonstrated over 25 years of service, leadership, and activism, advocating to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

In 1998, along with a small group of Kaska women, Ann joined the Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society (LAWS).  The Society acquired legal standing during the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and its submission provided recommendations from Yukon women on ending gender- and race-based violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

As the Society’s Executive Director, Ann has implemented numerous and innovative social response initiatives related to cultural wellness and social justice. Recently, the Society and the RCMP came together to implement a groundbreaking community safety protocol called “Together for Justice”, which was recognized for Best Practices by the United Nations and earned Ann the Yukon Government Community Safety Award for Outstanding Project in 2016.

Today, Ann co-chairs the Yukon Advisory Committee, which is helping develop the “Changing the Story to Upholding Dignity and Justice: Yukon MMIWG2S+ Strategy”. Her current role as a member of the National Family and Survivors Circle furthers her passion for advocacy, which comes from her lived experience of giving a voice to her sister, who was murdered. Her abilities to engage her community in a consistent path of development and blend traditional and Western therapeutic models of practice have earned her recognition, including the 2017 Governor General Polar Award.

Charlotte Wolfrey (Pottle) was born on the land in the Rigolet area of Nunatsiavut. Strongly rooted in her Inuit heritage, she practices her culture and lives from the animals and plants from her community.

Known regionally and nationally for her advocacy work for the rights of women and children and for speaking against family violence, Charlotte has held a variety of senior management positions in health care and municipal administration, including serving on the Community Council and Labrador Inuit Association.

In addition to being involved in research since the early 1980s, she has served many local, provincial, national and international committees and organizations, including Canadian Inuit Circumpolar Health Society, Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research, and the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

In recognition of her decades of service and advocacy, she was named Pauktuutit’s Inuit Woman of the Year in 2011, and became a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013. In 2012, Charlotte was selected to be an Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For two years, she served on the National Family Advisory Circle, which helped provide recommendations and guidance to the Commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. After years of speaking out and advocating for Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, she is hopeful that transformational change will be possible.

Charlotte is now active as a board member of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada and is also currently serving as AngajukKâk (Mayor) of Rigolet. She is proudest of being a wife, a mother to her four children, a grandmother, and a great grandmother.

Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster, elected in 2019, currently serves as Deputy Mayor for the City of Iqaluit. She is a profound Inuk artist using art as a catalyst for discourse and civic engagement on femicide, trauma and survival. 

As an active social political activist and feminist, she works endlessly to better her community and the lives of Inuit. Pitsiulaaq devotes her career to organizing community-engagement projects and northern development initiatives and advocacy for artists, homelessness, and MMIWG2S+. 

She is a survivor and crusader for systemic change in policy, legislation, and the criminal justice system to stop gender-based violence against women. Pitsiulaaq has been impacted by the loss of family members, including her aunt Sylvia Ann Lyall, who was murdered in 2003, and her cousin Angela Pitseolak Meyer, who has been missing in Yellowknife since 2010. She testified at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2018.

A mother of three, parent and ningiuq to her aunt’s orphaned son and his daughter, Pitsiulaaq became known throughout Iqaluit for transforming graffiti into positive messages by covering the previous offensive images and statements with words of kindness and support.

Tanya Debassige is Ojibwe and Odawa from Mnidoo Mnising, Manitoulin Island. She was born and raised on her Anishinabek traditional territory within the Robison Huron Treaty, and is the mother of two amazing grown children and a proud grandmother. As the granddaughter of a residential school survivor and having attended an Indian Day School in her formative years of her life, she has learned resilience, patience and tenacity.

As an impacted family member, and an impacted community member who has witnessed the results of systemic racism and violence, Tanya uses her lived experience to advocate for families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and survivors of gender- and race-based violence. After finding challenges in accessing resources, she now helps impacted families and survivors navigate provincial, federal, and First Nations programs.

Tanya ensures her advocacy and teaching is rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing, which she credits to her parents. Her father, Adam Debassige, instilled in Tanya the importance of education, and now, despite overcoming learning disabilities, Tanya holds two degrees. As a key part of her family’s healing, Tanya’s mother, Lorraine, is a firm believer in language in ceremony after overcoming the mentality of needing to hide her cultural practices. These values have allowed Tanya to be a better advocate and a better educator in providing information to other families and survivors.

Now, as a member of the National Family and Survivors Circle, Tanya is a solutions-focused change agent educating the world that Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people are sacred. Her fervent hope is that the 231 Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry’s Final Report are implemented, and that every Canadian understands their responsibility in ending gender- and race-based violence.