Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
100TH ANNIVERSARY NARCISSE WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
Inwood Memorial Hall
Saturday, September 23, 2023, 1:00 p.m.
(please check against delivery)
Friends, residents of Manitoba’s beautiful Interlake, it’s a pleasure to join you in celebrating a century of strengthening communities.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba I first acknowledge that this province of deep roots is the ancestral and present-day home of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Dene, Red River Metis and Inuit peoples.
Here on Treaty One land, as elsewhere in Manitoba, we honour the treaties that made the sharing of this beautiful land possible.
And as we work for healing and understanding of past and present wrongs, we strive to make equitable, resilient, healthy and just communities for all.
Manitobans are proud to live in a province of community leaders and volunteers. And we are equally proud of the strong sense of community that animates cities and towns and rural areas from the 49th parallel to Hudson Bay.
That sense of community has been nurtured by generations of women – in Narcisse and in every other Manitoba community. And many of them have been part of the Women’s Institute movement.
Manitoba’s Women’s Institutes have played an essential role in rural communities since 1910 – through the world wars, the Great Depression and the continuous changes brought by new technologies.
It’s a source of pride for Canadians that the Women’s Institute movement began in our country.
And it should be a source of pride for all members of Manitoba’s Women’s Institutes that so many important initiatives have come into effect through the advocacy efforts of these groups.
Women’s Institute members have spoken up for improvements in education, health, human rights, community services.
They have advocated for changes to benefit all Manitobans and all Manitoba families. And they have especially advocated for rural areas, to ensure that people in places like the Interlake have access to health, communication, education and other services that people in larger centres take for granted.
It’s a pleasure to meet women who have contributed to life in Narcisse, the wider Interlake region and Manitoba as a whole.
As Lieutenant Governor and the representative in Manitoba of King Charles, I thank you for all you have done to infuse our province with the spirit of community.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwich.
