MinSouth SNAP - Diversity in Mining:  An Indigenous Female's Perspective

MinSouth Event Organiser

On November 23rd, Kari Lentowicz will outline in a virtual presentation challenges faced by indigenous women working in the mining industry.

Kari Lentowicz, a First Nations women from the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Northern Saskatchewan, will be presenting this SNAP:Mining is an essential industry, and the very success and acceptance of the mining industry is reliant on a diverse and inclusive workforce. So why are we then asking women and Indigenous peoples to change who they are to “fit in” to an industry that we acknowledge needs to change to grow and prosper?  Working in the mining industry shouldn’t be at the cost of changing cultural nuances, loss of identity, and contradicting values. Corporate culture has had an expectation for women and Indigenous people to adapt their way of doing things in order to meet corporate terms of success. Women and Indigenous people in Canada are often in entry-level positions and, it seems challenging to some to change the existing culture of “doing it the way we’ve always done it” to a culture of awareness, diversity, inclusion, and equity in all realms. And sadly, the challenges and micro-aggressions present for minorities go unacknowledged. Awareness of all these shortcomings are necessary to transform the corporate culture to one that celebrates the differences of others.Kair Lentowicz is a Jill-of-all-trades,with 20 years of experience in the mining industry and currently runs her own consulting company.In 2018, Kari  started Diamonds in the Rough (DITR) – a non-profit dedicated to bringing awareness to diversity, equity, and inclusion of women in the mining industry using mine rescue as a vehicle to do so. That year, she took the first all-female team to participate in an international competition in Russia – a country where it is still illegal for women to work underground. Her plan for DITR includes the training of an all-female indigenous mine rescue team that will compete at a National level for they are significantly underrepresented in this industry and visibility is needed to encourage more Indigenous men and women to seek out these non-traditional Mining roles.With a science background and a love for everything emergency response, her life goal is to build emergency response capacity in communities, industries, and on a personal level for minorities. She seeks to build respectful relationships of understanding between all people so we can succeed together.

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MinSouth SNAP - Diversity in Mining: An Indigenous Female's Perspective

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