A United Nations conference in New York City will hear from a Manitoba delegation about the root causes and solutions to the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson will be one of five people speaking Monday about the risks faced by indigenous women and girls when moving from a rural reserve to an urban environment.

The event, organized by the Institute for International Women’s Rights – Manitoba, will run alongside the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN.

North Wilson said it’s an opportunity to share with a global audience the risks that Canada’s indigenous women and girls face when the transition to a foreign environment where they might not know the system, the city, or any other people.

North Wilson said she can relate personally to what others go through. “I was full of hope and opportunity and optimism. What I faced instead was racism and belittlement and just not fitting in,” she said by phone from New York.

Her classmates made fun of the way she dressed and spoke, and she went from being the best student in her class in her home community of Bunibonibee Cree Nation to the worst. She said this was devastating to her self-confidence.

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When women and girls feel isolated, they become vulnerable to people who want to exploit them, said North Wilson.

“I had a friend who befriended me and she defended me against people that were making fun of me… It turns out I think she was grooming me. She’d take me to places where older men were meeting young girls for sex and luckily for me, I wasn’t into it as much as other girls fell into it.”

North Wilson credits her parents with keeping her from falling into the wrong lifestyle, but said many young women and girls don’t have those supports when they move to the city.

She said Canada needs to have transition centres for indigenous people moving from reserves to the city, similar to services offered to new Canadians.

Along with MKO and the IIWRM, the panel on Monday will include representatives from the University of Winnipeg’s Global College and Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre Inc., along with Karen Batson of the Southern Chief’s Organization and Chief Janice Henderson of Mitaanjigamiing First Nation.