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Overcoming racism is a matter of taking pride in First Nation’s identity. It’s a message that she learned from her parents. “They experienced more racism than me. My mother had to learn how to overcome it every day of her life coming from the residential school.”

Ferrell can trace her beliefs about First Nation pride back to her parents’ activism during Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s 1969 White Paper. In response, her parents, together with other First Nations, formed the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians (AIAI) to stop the assimilationist and racist laws. Although she was only 17 at the time, her parents’ energy and determination to do the right thing as Indigenous leaders made a big impression. “They were guided by principals and a sense of justice, and that gave them an enormous sense of purpose.”

Ferrell has encountered her own experiences of racism over the years, but the incident that stands out happened when she was eleven years old. She had stopped playing with her good friend, and was waiting for her outside her front door while her friend got something from inside her own house. From inside came the voice of her friend’s grandmother who said, “You aren’t playing with that little Indian girl again.”

“This woman was a grandmother herself, and I was playing with her granddaughter. And she didn’t see me as just another eleven year old girl. She saw me as a little Indian girl. These sorts of things never leave you.”

Today, these experiences and the guidance from her parents stand her in good stead as she navigates being the chair of the Executive Finance Committee and band councillor. Mississaugas of the Credit are better off than many First Nations having won a 2010 settlement (The Toronto Purchase Claim and the Brant Tract Claim) for $145 million, but under the terms of that agreement, they are not allowed to spend the capital but only allowed to spend the interest, Ferrell says.

“There’s always a need within the community which are basic needs. Right now we’re looking for dollars to finish our sewer line. We are looking at expanding our school and getting it finished. We are looking for more funding for housing. We are looking for funding so that we can have a cultural centre. We have to lobby for those dollars. I believe a lot people don’t understand that First Nations do not receive the funding they need for all their projects.”

Part of being a successful band councillor is understanding that you don’t get everything that you lobby for. “It’s not always about being able to get my own way. It’s a question having something that I believe in and that’s important.”

Ferrell believes that we have come a long way toward a better understanding of First Nations since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Still, she says there is more work to be done.

“There are 133 First nations in Ontario alone and over 600 in Canada. A lot of people don’t understand we’re like you and anyone else. So we go to work, we go to school. We have a lot of academic scholars within our membership. People need to know who we are, where we came from and that we’re still here.”