The Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) provides a safe environment for girls to explore exciting activities that help them grow into confident young women with leadership skills. GGC welcomes girls from diverse communities across Canada. Through activities like sports, camping, science and community projects, the GGC program gives girls tools to achieve their potential. Joan has been involved with the GGC for 35 years and found support from her "Guiding sisters" as a single mother. She discovered her Mi'kmaq heritage through GGC and now shares Indigenous culture and teachings with her unit, including drumming, singing and language. Joan feels GGC plays an important role in empowering girls by keeping them busy through a variety of experiences.

1. FIRST NATION YEARBOOK 65
Girl Guides of Canada-Guides du Canada
(GGC) provides a safe and secure environment
where girls can focus on exciting activities that
help them become the best they can be. GGC
programs are so dynamic that girls often don’t
even realize they are building leadership skills
and developing into self-assured young women.
GGC Members are as diverse as the many
Canadian communities they come from. The
Girl Guide program provides an accepting envi-
ronment with varied and exciting activities that
offer all girls the chance to discover, explore and
be adventurous with new friends. From sports,
camping and science to eco-activities and com-
munity projects, Guiding has something for
every girl in Canada. Guiding is bold, fun, ener-
getic and gives girls the tools they need to
achieve greatness.
Joan has been a Member of Girl Guides for 35
years and was a single mother to five children,
with four of her daughters being involved in the
Guiding movement. To support her family, and
be able to spend quality time at home, she held
a variety of jobs such as reflexologist and seam-
stress, and is currently a bus driver for special
needs children. In spite of her busy homelife,
she always found time to be an active Guiding
Member and her sisters in Guiding supported
her through many difficult times.
“I do not have any sisters, so my Guiding sisters
became family to me. I love teaching the girls. It
makes me glow inside to think that I might have
even just a little influence on their care of the
earth, or inspire them to think for themselves or
try something that is scary.”
Joan lives in Nova Scotia, comes from a mixed
cultural background and grew up unaware of her
Native Mi’kmaq heritage. It was partially through
Girl Guides that she discovered her love and inter-
est of Native culture when she heard a presenter
from the Blackfoot First Nation speak at a provin-
cial Guiding camp. She was then invited to par-
ticipate at a Mohawk sweat lodge, later helped at
a sundance, gradually came to meet different
elders and community leaders and found her
roots. It felt like she was “coming home”.
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Canadian Guiding leaders are skilled and very creative at adapting the
Girl Guides program to the needs of their girls, their environment
and available resources in their communities. Joan introduced some
Native cultural experiences to provide an additional flavour to the
Guiding program.
“It gives me great joy to know my ancestors were such a proud and noble
race who saw themselves as guardians of Mother Earth. Learning about
my heritage enriched my path of growth and encouraged me to learn
more. It is humbling to be asked to share knowledge, to think that I
might know enough to teach another person. My love of Mother Earth
and the environment is something I bring to every Guiding meeting.”
Joan continues to learn from her Native elders and acts in much the
same way by passing on her knowledge and mentoring to the girls at
Guiding. Her weekly Guiding meetings observe First Nation ideas of
living in harmony with the earth, and incorporate simple ideas like not
using disposable plates and cutlery. She uses the “talking stick” to instill
the importance of respect and listening to everyone’s opinion and teach-
es the girls about nature while hiking.
“I’m trying to learn more of the Mi’kmaq language so I can sing along
at pow wows and at the Native sweat lodge and other ceremonies. I
enjoy sharing my Native heritage with my Guiding community and
invite Guiders to sing the ‘Heartbeat of Mother Earth’ in Mi'kmaq
while I drum. We say that the drumbeat is our mother’s heartbeat, it is
primitive, very soothing and everyone is touched by it.”
Guiding’s Native Heritage Badge encourages visits from someone of
another culture to talk to girls in Guiding about their experiences.
When Joan visits other Units, she introduces herself as Little Turtle
Woman, wears her ceremonial dress, sings and drums a song or two and
introduces words from the Mi’kmaq language. To engage the girls, she
brings props such as feathers, shows the medicine wheel and brings the
four sacred medicines. Depending on the age group, Joan introduces
topics such as how the girls can learn from animals, talks about Clans
and the differences and similarities of different First Nations in Canada.
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Two Guides learning how to properly use tools...
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Joan presented to girls and adult Members at
Guiding Mosaic, a National Camp that
included international guests. The session
participants shared their thoughts in a
“Native talking circle” which one might
equate with today’s group therapy sessions.
Everyone had the opportunity to express
themselves and share the feelings that might
hold them back from moving forward on
their path and it was very moving experience
for some of the women.
Joan thinks that Guiding is particularly help-
ful for today’s girls because it keeps them
busy, exposes them to a variety of activities
and skills, helps them discover more about
themselves and the world, and teaches them
to be independent thinkers. Strong friend-
ships evolve from Guiding programming that
helps instill determination, spirit, camaraderie
and resourcefulness .
“Like all youth today, Native children are just
as dependant on technology and may not
relate with other youth in ways that they have
done in the past. Pressure and boredom may
cause them to drink, take drugs or become
sexually active at a young age. Through
Guiding, girls learn to be true to themselves
without being scrutinized by peers. The best
thing about Guides is that it lets girls just be
girls, lets them do things and go places they
might not get a chance to do otherwise. GGC
Members have opportunities to apply for
Guiding scholarships or international trips.
Guiding can provide them with a sense of
belonging in a good respectful environment.”
Joan is an example of the many dedicated and
talented women who ensure that all girls
receive a rich, fun and meaningful Guiding
experience. Her ongoing desire to keep learn-
ing and her passion for hobbies as broad as cos-
tume design to history provide a wealth of
knowledge that she imparts to girls in Guiding.
“Guiding helps instill much of the First
Nation philosophy of being kind to Mother
Earth and protecting her for future genera-
tions. In my eyes, Guiding still remains the
only way for most girls to get back to the
earth and outdoors in a generation that is
technologically advanced and far removed
from its original roots.”
GGC is constantly refreshing its programming
to meet the interests and needs of today’s girls.
Moving towards its 100th anniversary in 2010,
the Canadian Guiding Movement continues to
raise awareness of the issues affecting girls and
women across the country and introduces
them to the many fantastic opportunities
Guiding offers.
A young Girl Guide member from Saskatchewan,
taking part in Guiding activities.
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