Ruth Flowers, longtime advocate of aboriginal women's rights, dead at 75
A funeral service will be held Saturday for Ruth Flowers, a respected elder and longtime advocate for the rights of aboriginal women in Labrador.
Flowers died Monday in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. She was 75.
Her daughter-in-law Lori Dyson told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning that "women's issues were first and foremost" to Flowers.
"She was a teacher, she was a woman who — as her niece had commented on social media — 'was a woman who stood up and fought, basically when women were expected to sit down and be quiet,'" said Dyson.
"She fought for the rights of not just people, but for women in particular. She formed a lot of different committees on the north coast. But she refused to sit back and wait for things to get done," Dyson said.
"She wanted change, and she made sure change came in so many different ways."
Pioneer and trailblazer
Dyson said Flowers' father died when she and her five siblings were quite young, so she was raised by her mother.
"So when things needed to be done, I guess you had to do them. Her mom taught her well," she said.
Flowers is being remembered as a pioneer and a trailblazer, and was instrumental in forming a number of committees and organizations, including the establishment of the first women's group in Makkovik.
She was also a Member of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award.
"People have recognized her — but she wasn't about recognition," Dyson said. "She was about making sure that the changes actually came."
Flowers served as a councillor and deputy mayor, as well as two terms as the mayor of Makkovik.
Dyson said she was also responsible for getting the RCMP to come to Makkovik.
"I remember an RCMP sergeant, he had come to Makkovik ... and he said he had no choice but to come, because Mrs. Flowers basically called him every day," said Dyson.
"And she was telling him 'you have to come, you have to come.' The presence was needed there."
Dyson will deliver the eulogy at Flower's funeral Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Moravian Church in Hopedale.
A community service will also be held in Makkovik at the same time in her honour.
