Gena Boubard, Miss Aboriginal Canada 2025, breaks the barriers and inspires her community

It was on the territory of the Six Nations of Grand River, near Hamilton, that the 2025 edition of Miss Aboriginal Canada took place. This competition, open exclusively to women of indigenous origin (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), crowned Gena Boubard, from Manitoba, from the first nation Sagkeeng Anicinabe.

A text by Bérénice Claude

Launched by young Aboriginal people, the competition is distinguished from Miss traditional by emphasizing other aspects. Miss Aboriginal is not a beauty contest; It is not focused on external beauty, but on the defense of the interests of the community, culture and also the development of leadership skillsexplains Gena Boubard.

The competition includes four main components: an interview, a cultural presentation, a dissertation and a community album. After a rigorous selection process, 19 participants were finally reduced to 5 finalists, who had to answer a final question to be able to determine who would be the big winner.

Despite doubts about her place in the Miss Aboriginal Canada competition, Gena Boubard has experienced a magnificent experience of sorority With the other participants, since they maintain close links.

His first public speech, during the Pow-Wow Champions of the Grand River Champions, marked the start of her role to represent Miss Aboriginal 2025.

The election of Gena Boubard is also historic in more ways than one. My intention was not to win; I wanted to raise awareness among bispiritual identities. I am the first bispiritual and non -binary person to have never participated theresays Gena. With this strong identity, Gena created a pride committee in Sagkeeng and organized the first parade in the pride of her community last June.

To prepare, Gena Boubard drew from history, by carrying out research at the Bispiritual Archives of the University of Winnipeg in order to better understand the history of bispiritual people in Canada.

His competition experience is not new. In 2018, she participated in Miss Manitoba and at Miss Southern Manitoba Worldwhich led him to Miss World Canada. She was the only Aboriginal participant. This is where I learned how powerful competitions can beargues Gena Boubard.

Through her reign, Gena wishes to honor her identity and remain faithful to herself, convinced that this opens opportunities and allows you to find support. Its aspiration is to make people aware of the struggles, but also to the importance of focusing on joy and celebrating the differences within Aboriginal communities.

His hope is to inspire young people by showing them that they can be proud of who they are, a message that has already earned him many thanks. I received a lot of messages from people saying: “Thank you, we really need this kind of representation”. Many people say: “You give me hope”.

For the future, Gena Boubard has clear objectives. His efforts are moving towards the support of organizations working with the most vulnerable people in his community, as Sunshine Housein Winnipeg, a resource center for people who consume substances and for homeless people, managed mainly by bispiritual and Pandc (Aboriginal people, black and in color). A bingo is organized on Sunday in the organization, in order to raise funds to support the cause.