Indigenous activist.
Born on the Peepeekisis Cree Nation in 1935, daughter of Indigenous leader Joe Ironquil, she attended the File Hills Residential School to the age of 13, then two years at a private school at Strasbourg, Saskatchewan followed by the Birtle Indian Residential School. She organized and was pitcher for the Arrowettes, a women's baseball team that played in Winnipeg for 17 years. In 1954, she married Ronald Hector Meadmore and they had three sons.
She graduated with a law degree from the University of Manitoba (1977) and, the following year, became the first Indigenous woman to be admitted to the Manitoba Bar. Along with Faigie Fainman and Mary Lamont, she opened what is believed to be one of Winnipeg's first all-female law practices. She eventually co-founded the Canadian Indian Lawyers Association (Indigenous Bar Association).
Active in the community, she was involved with the first Indian and Metis Friendship Centre in Canada (1959) and became editor of its newsletter, The Prairie Call (1961). She was among six co-founders of a committee in 1954 that became the National Indian Council (1961). It was Canada's first national body that advocated for the rights of First Nations people, and she was active in forming Kinew Housing, the country's first Indigenous housing corporation.
She founded the National Indian Business Association to support Indigenous entrepreneurs (1982) and Arrowfax Canada to publish directories of First Nations and Indigenous organizations around North America (1988). In recognition of her service, she was inducted into the Order of Canada (1985). She also received a Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), and an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba (2024).
She died on 19 February 2025. A collection of records are held at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.
“Prizes for proletariat?” by Alice Krueger, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 September 1978, page 85.
“Tireless advocate for change,” Winnipeg Free Press, 20 February 2025.
We thank Oliver Bernuetz (Legislative Library of Manitoba) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 18 March 2025
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