Jenny Margetts (born Jane Maria Shirt, 14 June 1936 – 18 October 1991) was an Indigenous woman who advocated for women and children.
She was born to Felix and Louisa Doghead Shirt on the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta, Canada.
From 1975 to 1982 she was president of this association, aimed at giving Indigenous women the right to equality in the Canadian constitution.
The work to repeal this part of the Indian Act caused hostility and deep divisions within the Indigenous community.
There were protests both for and against the bill, particularly among male elders who feared an influx of formerly-evicted women, their non-Treaty husbands, and children back to the reserves.
"IRIW President, Jenny Margetts, also spoke and stated (to huge applause) that while she wished ‘Marlene and her group success, I realize that we have to be specific about Native women’s rights and we should stick to women’s rights.’"[6] The IRIW association continued until 1985 when section 12 (1) (b) was finally repealed to adhere to the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
One day in the early 1970s, Jenny’s mother called her and expressed concern that her grandchildren were not learning the Cree language and that the school system was not offering enough cultural teaching.
Jenny recounted, "With missionary zeal, we set out to outline all the reasons why Native kids needed their own kindergarten.
Elders, the Indigenous community, and the Edmonton Public School District staff formed the nucleus of the project, which focused on eight areas: curriculum development, summer activities, lead teachers, classroom aides, a resource centre, cross-cultural awareness services for teachers and the community, and a home-school liaison component.
As a result of lobbying by concerned Indigenous people as well as school system personnel throughout Alberta, in the summer of 1980 the Department of Education ear-marked funding for such programs, resulting in large urban school systems developing programs on a much broader scale to meet the needs of Indigenous students.
[8] These were issues Jenny understood well and used them in her presentations at conferences and before provincial and federal education task forces.
"[9] From Jenny's early years of involvement with the Voice of Alberta Native Women Society, foster care was a major issue.
The Society received a grant to employ Indigenous women on a part-time basis to promote foster care and recruit foster homes, and to survey the number of Indigenous families who did not receive any financial assistance while providing care to children who were not their own.
After completing a 2-year business program at McTavish Business College, one of Jenny's first jobs was as office manager for the newly formed Alberta Native Communications Society, whose mandate was to produce and provide communications of all media (print, radio, TV, film) from an Indigenous perspective to the Indigenous peoples of Alberta.
She was instrumental in setting up and coordinating the Awasis Program under the Edmonton Public School Board and chaired the Sacred Circle Committee, was a board member of the Alberta Status of Women Action Committee, and a volunteer leader for the Girl Guides of Canada.
She served on the Ad Hoc Committee on Cree Languages at the University of Alberta, the Ad Hoc Committee on Family Violence through the federal government, and a Task Force Member on Native Children with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
For an anthropology class she outlined her own Women’s Life Cycle, noting that at mid-life, aged 50, she was "solid in marriage, children grown, and clear thinking.
However, this university lacks the necessary courses to qualify me to teach, to get that piece of paper..."[7] During her studies, Jenny was diagnosed with cancer, and after a three-year battle with the disease died at home on October 18, 1991, at the age of 55.