Madahbee Leach to be honoured with national award

Dawn Madahbee Leach, a member of the Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation, will be among those honoured at the Indspire Awards ceremony next month in Ottawa. Photo courtesy of Indspire Awards

By Sam Laskaris

AUNDECK OMNI KANING FIRST NATION – Winning a prestigious national award is an honour for anybody, but being announced as one of the recipients for the 2020 Indspire Awards – the highest accolades for Indigenous people in Canada – has added meaning for Dawn Madahbee Leach.

It was announced that Madahbee Leach, a member of Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation, will be one of the Indspire Awards winners this year in the Business and Commerce category.

Award winners will be recognized at a ceremony on Mar. 6 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

“What makes it more special is that my late aunt Lillian (McGregor) won an Indspire Lifetime Achievement award a few years ago,” said Madahbee Leach.

Madahbee Leach has served as the general manager for the Waubetek Business Development Corporation since 1988.

Waubetek is an Indigenous financial institution that provides services to Indigenous entrepreneurs and to 27 First Nations in northeastern Ontario.

Madahbee Leach became the first Indigenous woman to lead a regional lending institution.

The multi-million dollar investments she has overseen have greatly contributed to the economies not only in various First Nations but also in regional centres as well.

Madahbee Leach is married to former National Hockey League star Reggie Leach, who won the Stanley Cup in 1975 as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

“To me, [the Indspire award] is also special because Reggie received it in the past as well,” Madahbee Leach said.

Her husband was honoured in 2008 via the Sports category, when the accolades were called the Canadian Aboriginal Achievement Awards.

Madahbee Leach is touched award organizers chose to recognize her this year.

“I’m still a little overwhelmed by it all,” she said. “I know I work hard. [To win awards] is not why you work hard. It’s something that was instilled by my mother.”

During her career, Madahbee Leach has also served on numerous regional, provincial and national boards and corporations.

Boards that she is currently serving on include Peace Hills Trust, Niobay Metals and the National Indigenous Economic Development board.

Madahbee Leach also furthers Indigenous economic development by speaking at various forums around the world.

Besides Canada and the United States, her speaking engagements have taken her to events in Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

Next month she has a speaking engagement in Chile. And talks in other South Pacific countries will be held later this year.

Madahbee Leach is also the owner of Indigenous Business International, a company providing consulting services and promoting corporate partnerships with Indigenous people.

Wherever she goes, Madahbee Leach enjoys spreading the word of how successful Indigenous people are in her home country.

“I think what I’d like to do is make some people understand we have such a growing number of people running Indigenous businesses in Canada,” she said.

Ten of the 11 recipients that will receive Indspire Awards this year are women.

“Honouring Indigenous women is so important,” Madahbee Leach said.

Other recipients include two members – Marian Jacko and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell – from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.

Jacko is being honoured via the Law and Justice category while Corbiere Lavell will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement award.

“It’s so exciting we have three women from Manitoulin Island this year,” said Madahbee Leach.