Although the activism and historic contributions of Indigenous female leaders to urban Indigenous community development across Turtle Island are recognized, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding the specific mechanisms that enabled Indigenous women to successfully articulate cultural knowledge and inform their management styles by traditional ways. The article explores some of the contributions of female leadership to the governance and program design of a large, culture-based urban Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada—the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC). We examine how the OFIFC’s Executive Director Sylvia Maracle (Skonaganleh:ra) has applied leadership principles grounded in Indigenous knowledge of her paternal grandmother and a Mohawk matriarch—Mary Ellen Maracle—to address specific challenges in urban Indigenous governance. We argue that the female-led articulation of Indigenous knowledge in organizational operations contributed to creating a community of service that respects distinct expressions of cultural and gender identity.

中文翻译：

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“领导者的工作是承载人民的骨头”：探索女性主导的城市环境中土著知识的表达

尽管人们认识到土著女性领袖对整个海龟岛城市土著社区发展的积极性和历史性贡献，但关于使土著妇女能够成功地表达文化知识并通过传统方式告知其管理方式的具体机制，文献中仍然缺乏。本文探讨了女性领导层对加拿大一个大型，基于文化的城市土著非政府组织-安大略省土著友好中心联合会（OFIFC）的治理和计划设计的一些贡献。我们研究了OFIFC执行董事Sylvia Maracle（Skonaganleh：ra）运用了基于其祖母和摩霍克族长（Mary Ellen Maracle）的土著知识的领导力原则来应对城市土著治理中的特定挑战。我们认为，女性领导的组织运作中对土著知识的表达有助于建立一个尊重文化和性别认同的独特表达的服务社区。