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Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe) – Leadership Qualities

Biographical Timeline | Leadership Qualities | Whanganui Water Rights | References

Winona LaDuke’s success in movement-building can be attributed to her personal mix of leadership qualities. The most critical of these qualities are her vision and ability to innovate, her patience, and community-oriented philosophy. These traits have been specifically highlighted because they are the pillars on which LaDuke’s work has been built.

Vision 

Winona LaDuke is a visionary, taking innovative approaches in her activism. Her career in raising awareness for indigenous issues began in earnest in 1985, and since then she has shown a remarkable ability to adapt and take advantage of changes in society and technology to further her cause. She has made abundant use of media, and her outreach has evolved over time , now spanning an impressive list. She has written several books (including a novel), essays, and articles, as well as appeared on television in documentaries. More recently, she has extended her campaign to the internet, keeping pace as it quickly became popular. In short, she has entered nearly every single form of media in existence. Her highly creative approach to media has led to recognition on several levels.

LaDuke has also been highly innovative as an environmentalist, with her work on renewable energy systems and issues such as climate change. She has used the broader scope of general environmental problems to draw attention to issues of environmental injustice regarding Indigenous communities. LaDuke rarely approaches issues from the “traditional” standpoint; more often, she paves the way for a new type of solution, often larger in scale and proportion than is expected. Using her background in economics, she has advocated for new  energy economic systems based on wind and solar power. By doing so, she hopes to draw both economic and environmental benefit for Native America. On her website, she also supports a crowd-funding initiative for solar energy, claiming that this new, unconventional method could prove to be a more effective means of financing solar energy. This shows a clear trend in LaDuke’s activism of being quick to embrace new and innovative methods to solve old problems. Rather than simply following in the footsteps of other native leaders before her, LaDuke clearly saw a vision of her own and pursued it, resulting in explosive success.

LaDuke with a solar panel as part of her clean energy initiative

Patience

Patience is one of Winona LaDuke’s most powerful qualities, and it is one of the driving forces behind her success. She exhibited patience from the beginning of her career as an activist, but also in her personal life. When she first moved to the White Earth reservation, for example, she was not accepted by the Ojibwe nation that she felt she belonged to. Rather than explosively confront this rejection and start a movement from the get-go, however, she bided her time. LaDuke worked at White Earth as a school principal and slowly got involved in local issues. She used her education in economics to help the reservation’s community, and then slowly transitioned into activism. Though she had been involved in activist groups since her undergraduate education at Harvard University, she worked patiently over the years to gradually establish a movement among her people, starting small and growing larger until groups from all over the nation became involved. As a Native leader, she tackles issues that have spanned centuries and will likely carry on for years. Attempting to rush these kinds of change would likely end in failure. While LaDuke still pursues great change, she takes her time, serving a higher purpose in looking to posterity. 

From LaDuke’s Acceptance Speech for Green Party V.P. Nomination Jun 25, 2000

Concern for her community 

Winona LaDuke’s leadership philosophy is highly community-oriented. Instead of leading from the front, her movements are often based within the community. Her first major ventures into activism came from within the local Ojibwe reservation at White Earth. Rather than just attempt to drive change by challenging an adverse outside environment, she has also chosen to focus on strengthening communities, preparing them for these adverse conditions. For example, to a greater extent than other leaders, LaDuke engages with youth. LaDuke has said, “We make sure the kids are part of everything. In most of America, it seems you don’t matter if you’re not between 25 and 50.” With her focus on youth, LaDuke targets  She frequently sets up and attends events to simply meet and discuss issues with communities all over America.

In the beginning of her career, LaDuke first devoted her energy to changing her personal community from within. Early on, she faced resistance to the White Earth Land Recovery project. “I need to deal with them because it affects other people where I live,” she said, referring to the power structure in her community.

Winona LaDuke engaging with local youth in the community

Winona LaDuke’s first major work as an activist was helping found the Indigenous Women’s Network, a platform that focuses on ensuring Native women have sovereignty over themselves and their environments. It is telling that instead of immediately trying to challenge their white oppressors, LaDuke valued strengthening the Indigenous community as a whole by targeting this deep social issue.

 

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Neville Bonner – Leadership Qualities

Biographical Timeline | Leadership Qualities | Mauna Kea | References

Pioneering

Although Bonner had many valiant and praiseworthy traits, one which truly

Queensland Country Life, Australian of the Year Quality

stands out is that he was a pioneer for his people. Despite being an Aboriginal man during a time of great adversity, Bonner stayed true to his morals in order to become the first person of Aboriginal descent to enter the Australian parliament. The number of ‘firsts’ that Neville Bonner accomplished on behalf of his people is both astonishing and highly commendable; including starting a business and becoming the first aboriginal to be elected to Australia’s senate. Despite little education and no political background, Bonner served as a bulldozer for advancing the rights of his fellow Aboriginal community members. Therefore, it is only appropriate that Bonner should be considered a pioneer of his time.

Because of Neville Bonner, Aboriginal Australians all over the country have one more influential leader to look up and aspire to. Furthermore, Aboriginals are recognized by their country’s constitution, they have laws that safeguard their land and communities, and Australia now protects, rather than rejects them. Like a pioneer, Bonner ventured into uncharted territory and dared to do the unexpected, with little support from the world around him. Today, he is a highly regarded and respected Aboriginal man, who deserves every ounce of recognition for his pioneering of laws that protect indigenous people and land.

Resilient

Bonner at a Land Rights March in Brisbane

Coming from an Aboriginal descent, Neville Bonner was not accepted by the white community. As a result, he was not able to receive the education he deserved. He lived in a discriminatory world in which he was not recognized by his own country’s constitution. Even so, Bonner continued to work hard in order to provide himself and his family a better path than the one society fabricated for them. He worked as a carpenter, managed a dairy farm, and even created his own boomerang manufacturing business before beginning his political career.

As an Aboriginal politician in the Commonwealth parliament, Neville Bonner was resilient in promoting Aboriginal rights and welfare during a time when the rest of the parliament was not willing to help Aboriginal communities. During his time in parliament, other politicians never considered Bonner his equal, often leaving him alone and rarely befriending him. Nonetheless, he was never afraid to express his Aboriginality to his colleagues, even if it meant that he had to vote against his party- something Bonner did over 30 times throughout his political career.

Bonner’s retirement from politics did not prevent him from advocating and speaking for Aboriginal issues. He was never ashamed of his Aboriginal culture, and hoped to remain true to his Aboriginal voice when speaking for his people. Bonner’s legacy continues to inspire Aboriginals today to rise above the stereotypes forced upon them by the government and contribute to the advancement of society.

Adaptable

From a young age, Neville Bonner had the ability to excel in any field or job he

Bonner Showing Off His Company’s Boomerangs

was tasked with. Bonner faced a frequent changing of schooling situations during his youth. The first school Bonner attended was the South Lismore School. He and his siblings were sent home the first day by the Head Schoolmaster because the white families kept their children home. After the death of Neville’s mother, his grandmother moved the family to Queensland where they attended the Beaudesert School. At this school, Neville was able to skip three grades in one year, proving that he was highly adaptable in any situation, so long as he had the right tools.

The trait of adaptability followed Bonner in virtually every job he had acquired. One of Neville’s first jobs was working on a cattle station. He started roughly the time that his wife became pregnant and by the time his son was born he had already become the Head Stockman. Eventually, his son became ill and the three moved to Palm Island. Bonner was forced to find another job on the island and became the Health officer on the island. Despite this completely different occupation, he was able to adapt extraordinarily well. The superintendent of the island tasked Bonner to make bricks to rebuild the infrastructure, or lack thereof. Again, granted the opportunity, Bonner made the best of his situation and was able to build a house for himself out of the bricks. Bonner was always adapting to positions of leadership in every field naturally. The adaptability that Bonner displayed in his various jobs and schooling led him excel in his career as a politician.