Ethel Blondin-Andrew

Ethel Dorothy Blondin-Andrew (born 25 March 1951) is a Canadian politician, educator, and public servant. She became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada in 1988 when she became a member of Parliament for the district of Western Arctic in the Northwest Territories. She is also the first Indigenous woman to be a Canadian Cabinet Minister.

Early life Blondin-Andrew was born 25 March 1951 in Tulita, Northwest Territories. She is a Dene woman. In 1959, she was sent to Grollier Hall in Inuvik, a residential school. She left the school to live in a tent town with other runaway students. When she was twelve, she went to the hospital for back surgery and discovered that she was ill with tuberculosis. After she recovered, she moved to Délı̨nę with her parents, where a local priest wrote her a recommendation letter for Grandin College, a leadership school in Fort Smith, which accepted her application.

She received a B.Ed from the University of Alberta in 1974, specialising in linguistics and literacy. In 1984, she became National Manager of the Indigenous Development Participation Programme which was run by the Canadian Public Service. She was appointed executive director two years later.

Following the 1993 federal election, the Liberal Party became the majority party and when Jean Chrétien became Prime Minister, Blondin-Andrew was appointed Secretary of State for Training and Youth on 4 November 1993.

In 2001, her work for Aboriginal communities was formally recognized by Brock University, who awarded her an honorary doctorate. She was also awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 2012. She also received the 2019 Maclean's Lifetime Achievement Award given to former MPs. She currently works with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

Personal life Blondin-Andrew currently lives in Norman Wells. She is married to Leon Andrew and has four children and four grandchildren.