Ethel blondin andrew biography

Canadian politician

Ethel Dorothy Blondin-AndrewPC OC (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.^[1] She is also the first Indigenous woman to be a Canadian Cabinet Minister.^[2]

Early life

Blondin-Andrew was born 25 March 1951 in Tulita, Northwest Territories.^[3] She is a Dene woman.^[4] 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.^[5] After she recovered, she moved to Délı̨nę with her parents, where a local priest wrote her a recommendation letter for Grandin College, a Northwest Territories (electoral district) - Wikipedia QIHO