The Women of Influence Awards are scheduled for February, a new initiative to celebrate gender diversity and inclusion in the Harbour City. (File Photo)

By Jordan Davidson

celebrate inclusion

Nanaimo Women of Influence awards to ‘shine a spotlight’ on diversity, inclusion and community

Jun 22, 2023 | 10:39 AM

NANAIMO — A celebration of women, gender diverse, non-binary and two-spirited individuals is coming to the Harbour City.

The inaugural Women of Influence Nanaimo (WIN) awards gala is set for Feb. 7, 2024, at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre, and is being organized by a local woman well known for her advocacy.

Blaise Hunter first received national attention when she was selected to represent Canada at the Global Youth Summit in Istanbul last year and said the awards gala is about collectively encouraging the responsibility we have to champion inclusion.

“Women, non-binary, two-spirit, gender diverse people all over Nanaimo are influencing the world in such positive and revolutionary ways, so we just want to shine a spotlight on that and create some normalcy around these people in these roles.”

She said it’s important to normalize the perception of the people in these roles by focusing on what they bring to the table for their community, rather than the gender they identify with.

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Hunter won a Women of Influence award while she was living in Alberta in 2019, and wanted to bring the same concept with its energy of celebration and elevating gender equity to Nanaimo.

“I’ll never forget that energy in that room that night, and when I moved to Nanaimo I noticed there wasn’t a Women of Influence awards here. So a group of us locally decided to launch it and extend this collective spirit mentality to Nanaimo because everyone should be seen, heard, valued, and celebrated.”

Hunter told NanaimoNewsNOW how words like diversity and inclusion “shouldn’t be buzzwords, shouldn’t just be an HR handbook policy”, but rather a focus on creating an inclusive community platform.

“It’s everybody’s responsibility, everyone needs to be educated and normalized and accept, and learn and celebrate. It’s really about everyone, not just women or diverse groups…we can’t progress individually unless we move forward collectively.”

There will be 10 award categories including Business Impact, Creative Innovator, and Arts and Culture.

Hunter said one category, Fan the Flame, is open to anybody, not just those who identify as women, gender-diverse, two-spirited or non-binary.

It recognizes an individual or organization which supports the advancement of others and is a true ally who campaigns for diversity and inclusion.

“This is really cool and unique because it is open to anyone: women, men, non-binary, two-spirit and gender-diverse people. So anyone can be nominated for that category.”

The awards gala is also being held a week before Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Week (Feb. 13-17), another cause which is near and dear to Hunter’s heart.

She also operates the non-profit Footprint in Fertility and Pregnancy Loss Support Society, which provides free resources to local parents to help them deal with those delicate issues.

“We thought we’d collectively combine everything together to create that normalcy of conversation when we spotlight it. It’s really amazing to be able to integrate two things into one.”

Hunter said they will release more details on this event in the fall, including how to nominate someone for an award. Self-nomination is also allowed, with the winners being announced at the awards gala.

More information on this event is at woinanaimo.ca/winawards.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow