Four aboriginal and non-aboriginal female lawyers inspired the movement that led to the Idle No More protest movement enveloping Canada right now.
Women have certainly been leading in First Nations affairs recently. Case in point is the high number of women in the recent Assembly of First Nations (AFN) leadership race and that the runner-up candidate for national chief was a female.
However, beyond politics First Nations women are leading in another area: business.
A recent piece in the Financial Post highlights the role First Nations women are playing as entrepreneurs that create wealth and opportunity on their communities. Aboriginal women, according to Aboriginal Affairs Canada data, are actually starting businesses at double the rate of Canadian women generally.
Arguably, these women as trailblazers are doing more substantively on the ground than any lawyer or policy maker.