This month’s Woman of Vision is the first Canadian and first Indigenous woman to win the Mrs. Universe title. Ashley Callingbull-Burnham is from the Enoch Cree First Nation. The 26-year-old went from obscurity to being a powerful voice for First Nations’ issues. Lesley MacDonald has her story.

Vote. That’s the message Mrs. Universe had for indigenous students at the University of Manitoba Friday. The beauty pageant winner whose name is Ashley Callingbull was the keynote speaker at a panel discussion about how indigenous vote can affect the federal election.

A satirical news website that used a Cree woman’s victory at an international beauty contest to draw attention to national coverage of missing and murdered indigenous women has withdrawn the article and apologized to its readers.

Last year, Alberta beauty queen Ashley Callingbull took home the Mrs. Universe crown, as the debut Canadian winner. Not only was the 27-year-old actress the first Canuck to be crowned in the pageant, she was also the first ever indigenous woman to win the title. Callingbull, who was born on the Enoch Cree Nation reservation, has become an impressive role model in the First Nations community.

In its 14th year, the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival opens exactly as a film festival should, with a bit of glamour and provocation.

Ashley Callingbull, ambassador of the Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot School and Mrs. Universe 2015 just started the program herself and said it’s the school’s mission to keep indigenous culture alive that really drew her to it – and in case you were wondering, she’s a novice at beading.

Kamloops student Jada Raphael—who grew up in Spences Bridge and Ashcroft, and is a member of the Cook’s Ferry Band—will soon be flying to Melbourne, Australia to take part in the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival as an Indigenous model.

Five years ago the Alberta Cree stood in front of a class of Oshawa high school students and noted she was representing aboriginal women in the Miss Universe Canada pageant. Stereotypes, she said, suggested she should be “a failure, a drunk, a drop-out, on welfare.” Instead she was there as an actress, model and motivational speaker.

The 13 influencers set to feature in the video included Olympic sprinter Andre De Grasse, Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak, First Nations activist and model Ashley Callingbull and YouTubers Lilly Singh and Mitch Hughes, among others.

Ashley Callingbull-Burnham of Alberta’s Enoch Cree Nation was the first aboriginal woman and the first Canadian to win the Mrs. Universe pageant. She speaks at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival on Wednesday night.

The crowning of a Cree woman as the winner of the 2015 Mrs.Universe pageant is more than just a personal victory — it’s a chance to help confront some of the issues facing indigenous people in Canada, according to one band councillor.

Mrs. Canada Ashley Burnham (C) celebrates after being crowned Mrs. Universe during the Mrs. Universe 2015 pageant final in Minsk on August 29, 2015.

Mrs. Universe speaks up for indigenous women

She’s the first Canadian and the first indigenous woman to win the title of Mrs. Universe. But that’s not the only thing that sets actor and model Ashley Callingbull-Burnham, 25, apart from your average beauty queen.

Five days after being crowned as Mrs. Universe, Cree activist Ashley Callingbull called out her country’s Prime Minister on national television.