Reawakening of Indigenous matriarchal systems: A feminist approach to organizational leadership

Abstract

Leadership models that uphold feminist qualities of mutuality, collaboration, and distribution of power can foster organizational and community success. Utilizing a systems perspective grounded in land-based analogies can assist with understanding the diversity and strength that come from entire ecosystems around wicked social issues. While Indigenous leadership models have supported such perspectives since time immemorial, current and ongoing acts of colonialism driven by patriarchal systems and violent gender-based policies and procedures have eroded matriarchal leadership models that sustained what is now known as Canada for generations. Reflections of two evolving Indigenous women in leadership note the opportunities to reawaken matriarchal values in organizational and community leadership as a powerful act of reconciliation.