Each year Manitoba’s most extraordinary women are honoured with the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg’s Women of Distinction Awards. We thought it would be great to meet the women nominated in the Arts, Culture and Heritage category.* Missed it? Watch the video here!
Nominated by Brenda Parsons, BuffyHandel is a champion role model for Indigenous youth. 
In 2008, Buffy founded the Aboriginal School of Dance, the first professional Aboriginal dance studio in Manitoba.
The studio helps mentor struggling youth in learning how to support themselves, while maintaining their cultural identity.
Buffy has received the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the 2017 Canadian Innovators in Education Award for her commitment to supporting Aboriginal youth.
In 2012 and 2013 , Buffy also initiated Folklorama’s Indigenous Mardi Gras pavilion.
Buffy’s mentoring style is said to nudge youth into increasing roles of responsibility, teaching them independence and confidence, while preserving their own distinct cultural identity
through music and dance.
*Arts, Culture & Heritage
This award recognizes women who enrich the cultural vitality of the community through the expression, performance, development or preservation of the visual, literary, performing or creative arts, or cultural heritage. They are committed to promoting the value of the arts and heritage as integral to the life of the community and encouraging others to find their own creative expression.
The Women of Distinction Awards take place Wednesday May 3
4:30 PM - 10 PM @ RBC Convention Centre
Sat, May 4, 2:30 PM
Full-time, Term, Education
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