The fonds includes records collected or created by Jenny Margetts when she conducted advocacy activities as a leader supporting Cree language, Indigenous culture, and women’s rights. The fonds document the activities, commitments and interests of Jenny Margetts as well as the activities conducted by Indian Rights for Indian Women (IRIW).
The records include several personal and IRIW notebooks and schedule books, as well as multiple records produced during Jenny Margetts’ life. These records consist of meeting minutes, correspondence to and from the IRIW, legislation summaries and discussions, committee records, publications, and internal communications of the IRIW, among other records. Other IRIW records include correspondence to and from Margetts and IRIW, research and planning notes, conference and meeting minutes and proceedings, reports and proposals, and workshop programs and evaluation forms.
This collection also contains a wide variety of records from Jenny Margetts, both in the form of personal correspondence and notes and from her work with IRIW. The majority of this collection relates to the IRIW’s lengthy legal battle to repeal the section of the Indian Act that stripped Indigenous women (and their children) of their status if they married a non-status man (Section 12 1(b)), as well as the subsequent work to address continued discrimination against Indigenous women in the Indian Act.