On July 14, 1979, a collective of Wolastoqiyik women and children from Tobique (Neqotkuk) First Nation began a 100-mile trek from Kanesatake to Ottawa to meet with federal cabinet ministers and then–Prime Minister Joe Clark. The walk was organized to raise national awareness about gender-based discrimination in the Indian Act and to lobby for basic rights denied to Indigenous women by both the Canadian government and their own band councils.

The Wolastoqiyik marchers were joined by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women and children—ranging in age from eight months to 70 years—from the Yukon, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Their journey concluded on July 21, when the original 50 women and children arrived on Parliament Hill, accompanied by 150 supporters who had joined for the final leg of the journey.

The walk was preceded in 1977 by a sit-in by 25 women and children who occupied the Tobique First Nation band council office to protest grievances affecting women on the reserve. Following the walk, Sandra Lovelace (Wolastoqiyik) petitioned the United Nations over the treatment of Indigenous women and children in the case of Sandra Lovelace v. Canada. In 1985, Lovelace succeeded in prompting Parliament to revoke a discriminatory section of the Indian Act that had deprived Indigenous women and their children of status.

The victories and struggles of the women of Tobique—including Sandra Lovelace and Carolyn Ennis, the lead organizer of the walk—are documented in Enough is Enough: Aboriginal Women Speak Out, as told to Métis author Janet Silman.