“When non-Indigenous people stop getting angry because governments are finally trying to bring communities up to par, that’ll be a good day. We’re entitled to equal rights to services, goods, facilities, accommodation, contracts, vocational associations, and employment as any other person residing in Canada; it’s a moral imperative.”
Darlene Kaboni was born and raised on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, located on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, her first language being Ojibway, serving as an Indigenous activist for much of her life. She now holds a position for the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She was en employee at Canada Post Corporation since 1987 as well as the Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology since 1992. She belongs to both the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). She also sits on the board of Photographers Without Borders as Chair.
As a member of OPSEU Local 656, she serves on the local executive as a Steward and the Newsletter Editor, representing her local constituents at the Sudbury Area Council meetings. She is also a member of the OPSEU Aboriginal Circle. In February 2011, she represented OPSEU as their First Nations representative for the Horizons of Friendship Tour to Guatemala, Central America. The tour to Guatemala gave her an opportunity to learn about community development, social justice and human rights not only of another country but of a people, the Maya of Guatemala.
As a member of CUPW Local 612, Darlene is the CUPW representative on the Sudbury & District Labour Council Executive Board; She is also the First Nation representative on the CUPW National Human Rights Committee and on the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Aboriginal Working Group. Darlene represented the First Nation Working Group of CUPW at the World People’s Conference on the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010. She has also participated on similar tours in other parts of the world including South Africa. Darlene is also a mother and grandmother.