{"id":4148,"date":"2026-02-05T18:34:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/speaker\/national-chief-cindy-woodhouse-nepinak\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T18:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T18:50:19","slug":"national-chief-cindy-woodhouse-nepinak","status":"publish","type":"speaker","link":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/speaker\/national-chief-cindy-woodhouse-nepinak\/","title":{"rendered":"National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak (<\/strong><em>Pinaymootang First Nation<\/em><strong>),<\/strong> National Chief, Assembly of First Nations<\/p>\n<p>Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has served as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations since December of 2023, elected by First Nations leadership across Canada. She is a proud member of Pinaymootang First Nation in Treaty 2 Territory, raised in a family with deep roots in leadership and community service. Her father was a longstanding Chief, her mother, a respected educator, and her Ancestor Chief Richard Woodhouse, a signatory to Treaty No. 2 in 1871.<\/p>\n<p>As the youngest woman and first mother to hold the office of National Chief, Woodhouse Nepinak is dedicated to advancing the rights and well-being of First Nations. She is recognized for her advocacy at all levels of government and the United Nations, focusing on Treaty rights, self-determination, addressing issues such as the second-generation cut-off, bail reform, clean drinking water and infrastructure gaps.<\/p>\n<p>She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg and has completed leadership programs at Harvard Business School. Her honours include the King Charles III Coronation medal (2025), Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (2022) and honourary fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2024, she was successful in pushing for the approval of an accord at the World Intellectual Property Organization\u2019s (WIPO) Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, in Geneva, Switzerland. The approval of the international accord helps to protect Indigenous Peoples traditional medicines, use of genetic resources and knowledge associated with genetic resources. Also in 2024, National Chief successfully lobbied and secured $23 billion dollars in settlement compensation for Child and Family Services and Jordan\u2019s Principle for First Nations.<\/p>\n<p>MacLean\u2019s magazine (2025) noted her as one of Canada\u2019s most influential Canadians for her leadership, \u201c<em>Trade wars and tariffs may dominate headlines, but she insists: no prosperity without partnership, and no extraction without consent.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5061,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"conference_year":[49,43,44],"speaker-type":[],"class_list":["post-4148","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","conference_year-49","conference_year-43","conference_year-44"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/4148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/speaker"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"conference_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/conference_year?post=4148"},{"taxonomy":"speaker-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.ca\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker-type?post=4148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}