Yvonne Atwell
{{short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{BLP sources|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Yvonne Atwell
| smallimage =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1943
| birth_place = East Preston, Nova Scotia, Canada
| office = Member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for Preston
| death_date =
| death_place =
| residence =
| term_start = March 24, 1998
| term_end = June 18, 1999
| predecessor = Wayne Adams
| successor = David Hendsbee
| party = NDP
| occupation =
}}
Yvonne Atwell (born 1943) is a Canadian community activist, former provincial politician and former hospital administrator. She is known for being the first Black woman elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
Early life and education
Yvonne Atwell was born in East Preston, Nova Scotia,{{cite news |last1=MacQueen |first1=Ken |title=N.S. vote offers blacks historic opportunity |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34427386/the_gazette/ |access-date=31 July 2019 |work=The Gazette |agency=Southam News |date=May 25, 1993 |location=Canada, Montreal |page=19|via = Newspapers.com}} in 1943. Frustrated by the discrimination she experienced as a Black Nova Scotian, she left the province in 1960, spending 24 years in Toronto.{{Cite web |title=Forming Her Activism {{!}} Women Social Activists of Atlantic Canada |url=https://womenactivists.lib.unb.ca/yvonne-atwell/forming-her-activism |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=womenactivists.lib.unb.ca}} She studied at Centennial College in Ontario and at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Dawn P. |title=Who's who in Black Canada 2: Black Success and Black Excellence in Canada: a Contemporary Directory |publisher=D.P. Williams |year=2006 |isbn=9780973138429 |pages=47}}
Career
Atwell worked for 20 years as an administrator at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, eventually rising to the position of Head of Patient Services. She returned to Nova Scotia in 1984 after inheriting land from her father.{{Cite web |title=Practicing Social Activism {{!}} Women Social Activists of Atlantic Canada |url=https://womenactivists.lib.unb.ca/yvonne-atwell/practicing-social-activism |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=womenactivists.lib.unb.ca}}
From 1993-98 she was the first Managing Director of the African-Canadian Employment Clinic in Halifax.
In 1996, Atwell ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party in its 1996 leadership election. She won a seat in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1998 for the riding of Preston, becoming the first Black woman MLA in the province.{{cite web |url=http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaypackstory?1998%2F03%2F26+147.raw+PE98Mar26+2 |title=New MLA makes history |access-date=2018-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030310140451/http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaypackstory?1998%2F03%2F26+147.raw+PE98Mar26+2 |archive-date=March 10, 2003 }}. Halifax Chronicle-Herald, March 26, 1998. Retrieved April 26, 2010 via Internet Archive She represented the district until the 1999 provincial election when she lost her seat to David Hendsbee.{{cite web|url=http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaypackstory?1999/07/29+212.raw+PE99Jul29+2|title=Tory majority lacks minorities|work=The Halifax Herald|date=July 29, 1999|access-date=2023-06-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030401041017/http://www.herald.ns.ca/cgi-bin/home/displaypackstory?1999/07/29+212.raw+PE99Jul29+2|archive-date=April 1, 2003}}{{Cite web |date=3 September 2021 |title=The Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia - A biographical directory from 1984 to the Present |url=https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/people/mlabios.pdf |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=Nova Scotia Legislature |page=7}}{{Cite web |last= |date=2013-10-11 |title=Women in Nova Scotia Politics |url=https://nslegislature.ca/about/history/women-in-nova-scotia-politics |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=Nova Scotia Legislature |language=en}} During her term in office she served as the Opposition Critic for Status of Women, and Business Consumer Services.
Between 1999-2004, Atwell worked as Policy Advisor and Diversity Officer at the Maritime Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, Dalhousie University.
Atwell has also been Executive Director of Community Justice Society, Executive Director of the Black United Front, President of the African Canadian Caucus of Nova Scotia, Chair of the Indigenous Blacks & Mi’kmaq Initiative at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, a member of the Metropolitan Board of Trade's small business committee, a member of the George Washington Carver Credit Union executive board, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants.{{Cite web |last=Canada |first=Employment and Social Development |date=2003-10-31 |title=GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES CREATION OF A SELF-REGULATING BODY FOR IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2003/10/government-announces-creation-self-regulating-body-immigration-consultants.html |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=www.canada.ca}}{{Cite book |last=Rutland |first=Ted |title=Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power, and Race in Twentieth-century Halifax |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2018 |isbn=9780774858588 |pages=239}}
Honours and legacy
In 2002, Atwell was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for her contributions to public life.{{Cite web |last=General |first=Office of the Secretary to the Governor |title=Yvonne C. Atwell |url=https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/125-37662 |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=The Governor General of Canada}}
In 2004, Atwell was inducted to the Rev Dr William Pearly Oliver Wall of Honour by the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia.
On March 1, 2020, the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party renamed their Diversity Fund to be called the Yvonne Atwell Diversity in Leadership Fund in recognition of "Yvonne Atwell's leadership in the legislature and her consistent encouragement of candidates with diverse backgrounds to seek public office".{{Cite web |title=Yvonne Atwell Diversity in Leadership Fund |url=https://www.nsndp.ca/yvonne-atwell-diversity-leadership-fund |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=Nova Scotia NDP |language=en}}
On February 22, 2022, a portrait of Atwell was unveiled at Province House in Halifax to honour her and commemorate her historic role as the first Black woman to be elected in Nova Scotia.{{Cite web |last=Scotia |first=Communications Nova |date=2018-05-11 |title=Portrait of First Female African Nova Scotia MLA |url=https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20220222004 |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=News Releases |language=en}} Her portrait is displayed in the Province House lobby alongside the portraits of former premiers of Nova Scotia.{{Cite web |date=22 February 2022 |title=Yvonne Atwell, first Black woman elected in NS, recognized by the Legislature |url=https://www.nsndp.ca/yvonne-atwell-first-black-woman-elected-ns-recognized-legislature |access-date=31 March 2022 |website=www.nsndp.ca/}}
References
{{reflist}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=_UtdQ6NsvYkC&pg=PA47 Williams, Dawn Who's who in Black Canada 2: Black Success and Black Excellence in Canada : a Contemporary Directory (2006)] {{ISBN|0-9731384-2-4}}
- [http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/hansard/han57-1/h98may26.htm# Nova Scotia Legislature Hansard, May 26, 1998]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140114061443/http://etc.lib.unb.ca/womenactivists/yvonne-atwell Yvonne Atwell, Women Social Activists of Atlantic Canada], University of New Brunswick
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atwell, Yvonne}}
Category:Nova Scotia New Democratic Party MLAs
Category:People from the Halifax Regional Municipality
Category:Women MLAs in Nova Scotia
Category:Black Canadian politicians
Category:20th-century members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly