Enoch Cree Nation woman crowned MRS Universe

[007]

Congrats!



Mrs. Canada Ashley Burnham, centre, celebrates after being crowned Mrs. Universe during
the Mrs. Universe 2015 pageant final in Minsk on Aug. 29, 2015.

Photograph by: SERGEI GAPON , AFP/Getty Images


Edmonton - A Cree woman from the Enoch Cree First Nation has won the 2015 MRS Universe pageant

Ashley Burnham was announced as the pageant winner on the site’s Facebook page Saturday night. Burnham, née Callingbull, is best known for her work on the acclaimed TV show Blackstone

“I‘m so proud to say I am now the new MRS Universe 2015!!! I am the first First Nations woman to win this title! I am also the first Canadian Delegate to win as well!!” Burnham wrote on her Facebook page.

The contest is open to married women and was this year held in Minsk, Belarus.

Burnham is an actress, model, and veteran pageant contestant, who earned a second-runner up spot at the Miss Universe Canada contest in 2010 when she was 20.

In an interview that year with the Journal, Burnham said she had a rough childhood in Enoch and Maskwacis but always loved to perform.

“Ever since I was little, I loved acting and being in the spotlight and on stage and everything,” she said. “When I was a little kid, I danced jingle and entered every powwow and competed.”

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal\

 

[Beef Jerky]

Congratulations.

 

[Boing]

 

[Boing]

 

[Boing]

 

[Anto]

:YMAPPLAUSE::YMAPPLAUSE:

 

[oldguyzer]

Very pretty lady. And too bad the focus has to be on her aboriginal status as much as her being Canadian.

 

[MisterSpicyChocolate]

she's beautiful...............very nice...

 

[Wanker]

I find she is just pretty, not stunning.

 

[SiNbaD]

Very pretty lady. And too bad the focus has to be on her aboriginal status as much as her being Canadian.

Hard to believe that in 2015 still happening.

 

[Rolex]

She is gorgeous.

 

[Yahoo]

She is gorgeous.

Very.

 

[Vegas_]

Very pretty lady. And too bad the focus has to be on her aboriginal status as much as her being Canadian.

Agreed! She is a beautiful woman. Or at least was until she opened her mouth and pushed the ethnic card and mentioned first Canadian to win as a side note ... hardly acknowledging that she was representing as Mrs Canada.

 

[User-E]

Ashley Burnham, Mrs. Universe, Urges Aboriginal People To Vote Out Harper

The newly crowned Mrs. Universe has called for the defeat of the Harper government.

Ashley Burnham, who last weekend became the first Canadian and aboriginal woman to win the international pageant, took to Twitter Monday to urge Canada's First Nations to vote out the Conservatives this fall.

"We are in desperate need of a new PM. Fight for your rights," she wrote.

Burnham, 25, is from the Enoch Cree Nation west of Edmonton. An actress on the APTN show Blackstone, she is better known by her maiden name, Ashley Callingbull.

This year's contest in Minsk, Belarus was dedicated to the topic of combating domestic violence. Burnham has spoken publicly about enduring physical and sexual abuse from her stepfather as a girl.

On Monday, she told APTN's Brandi Morin that she wants the federal Tories defeated, in part, because of their approach to the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. She also accused the Harper government of having an adversarial and "controlling" attitude toward First Nations.

"Other countries need to know what's going on in ours. It feels like the government just does not care about us," she said.

Though she re-tweeted a number of supportive posts, Burnham also took to Facebook to respond to apparent criticism that she was being too political.

"Did you really think I was going to just sit there and look pretty? Definitely not," she wrote. "I have a title, a platform and a voice to make change and bring awareness to First Nations issues here in Canada."

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/...per-mrs-universe_n_8068344.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

 

[MisterSpicyChocolate]

Oh wow, look at all the sexiness....

Light colours.........especially the Blue Bikini.... suits her skin quite nicely...

 

[User-E]

First Nations leader says he has never voted federally – but wants others to

Despite repeatedly calling on aboriginal voters to participate in October’s federal election, the head of the Assembly of First Nations says he has never cast a federal ballot – and “may or may not” do so on Oct. 19.

National Chief Perry Bellegarde made the surprising admission at a press conference Wednesday, in which he said aboriginals must speak up at the ballot box if they want federal governments to respond to their concerns.

“I just haven’t done it,” he said of voting. “It’s a real personal thing.”

Bellegarde said he had not voted because, as a First Nations leader, he wanted to maintain an appearance of non-partisanship. At the same time, he wanted to respect the teachings of First Nations elders, who argued treaty obligations must be honoured no matter which party is in power.

“The old people always said no matter who gets in, they’re supposed to live by and abide by this relationship we have,” he said. “And that’s why a lot of people struggle, should we or shouldn’t we participate. That’s the challenge.”

Turnout among aboriginal voters has lagged behind that of the rest of the population since the vote was given to them in 1961. The AFN says this is why successive federal governments ignored aboriginal concerns, a message Bellegarde repeated Wednesday.

The organization has been working for months to increase turnout among aboriginal voters, through press conferences, a partnership agreement with Elections Canada and other measures. Bellegarde has spearheaded many of those initiatives.