women

1876-1985 Indian Act s.12(1)(b)

All status “Indian” women who married non-status men, lost their “Indian” identity and all rights, including living in their own reserve communities

1973 Indian Act

Indigenous women challenged The Act but Supreme Court of Canada refused to change discriminatory provisions

1981 Indian Act

United Nations declared Canada in breach of the International Covenant on Human Rights

1985- Bill C-31

First amendments made to restore status to women and their children, but lots of problems that still effected identity

Indigenous women state that the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples is the root of violence, enacted through legislation

Challenges to the Indian Act

1960s activism to bring awareness of discrimination

1974 Native Women’s Association of Canada established in direct response to Indian Act

• to support women in the courts who lost status, but also poverty rights based on euro-western ideas of marriage and divorce laws

Indigenous bodies as sites of political violence

The outcome of government control over Indigenous identity is high rates of violence and the continued prevalence of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit

Colonial history of violence

Colonial institution sexualized Indigenous women’s bodies

• violated Indigenous women’s rights and personhood

Reinforced stereotypes leads to exploitation, sexism, misogyny, and oppression

• policing women’s and girls, violence from resources extraction (man camps), and connections to land and development, lateral and sexual violence communities

Sarah Hunt (Kwak-kwak-a-wak) Witnessing

Given the stigma surrounding sex work and the internalized shame experienced by many victims of violence, this need for collective validation resonates with witnessing. Witnessing can become central to undoing harms of colonialism

Creates healing by redefining sex workers and Indigenous women as people worthy of love and compassion

Coerced sterilization (Stote article)

Control over reproduction and sovereignty, the “logic” of settler colonialism

• remove, undermine, control

Indigenous Women’s Bodies and Sexuality

the Indian Act imposed sexual identity based on colonial values and experiences

Indigenous teachings are holistic and include sex, sexuality, an important part of life

• Earth and everyone living on it are sexual beings

Katéri Akiwenizie-Damm (Chippewas of Nawash, Saugeen Ojibway) - “I realized that in terms of sexuality… how do you inform about the risks… if you cant make reference to sex (2003)

“Taming Aboriginal sexuality” by replacing it with heteropatrichy and Christianity

Practices that protect vulnerable community members were made illegal

Surveillance and regulating sexual and gendered behaviour

Remove children or withhold financial payment (older women were mostly exempt)

Both men and women could be charged with immorality

Criminal Code of Canada- Indigenous women could be charged with prostitution even if not active repealed after WWII

Indigenous feminisms analyze sexuality, sensuality, gender and erotic expressions as decolonizing and reclaiming of body sovereignty

Queer Indigeneity and Masculinities

Colonialism positioned men as weak and ineffective and pathologized and suppressed Queer Indigenous People

Growing areas of scholarship

Indigenous men: few social policies or programs to address legacies of colonialism, men re/creating themselves in ways that are “crucial to generating masculine self-worth and fostering empowered, balanced, and mutually regenerative gender relations” (Sam McKegney)

Gender and sexual diversity were common, often multiple genders, but not always valued

Two spirit: a modern term, embodies diverse sexualities, genders, expressions

• a placeholder until gifted with an Indigenous word, a community organized strategy

Reclaiming “traditional gender roles” to re-establish balance and space for diverse experiences

From Ciudad Juarez to Highways of Tears

Marie France Labrecque- specializes in critique of international development, particularly “gender and development”

Feminicide

Feminicide involves “crimes of impunity”, this means “consequences and punishment-free actions”

Feminicide involves gender violence (Violence on the basis of gender)

Misogyny (hatred towards women)

Feminicide is a state crime

• This means that the administration of justice is ultimately a state responsibility (but, often, the state chooses to let these crimes go unpunished)

Feminicide refers to relations of power that place women in a subordinate position in society (hegemony and colonialism)

Highway of Tears

Highway 16 in Northern BC, 724km between Prince George and Prince Rupert

• scarcity of public transit which means that people need to hitchhike to leave the area if they dont own a car

Loss of the Greyhound bus made travel between communities difficult

• 2017 BC Bus North, inter community transit, infrequent service, doesn’t accept cash, safe waiting places are an issue

Since 1969 at least 46 women/teenagers have gone missing or been murder along this highway (72% Indigenous)

• 2026: 18 cold cases

2002 finally sees media coverage on this issue when a young non-Indigenous women goes missing on this highway

2006 Symposium recommended safer transportation to discrouage hitchhiking, some changes made, but safety i still an issue 20 years later

Annual community walk to remember those women Women and Girls still missing

Downtown Eastside Vancouver

Since 1983, about 60+ women have gone missing

In 2002, 33 women, 13 Indigenous were found on Robert Pickton’s pig farm

• in 2006 he is convicted of 6 of those murders (even though he boasted about murdering 49 women)

• Flawed police investigation leads to provincial commission of inquiry, lead by Justice Wally Opal

“Opal conclude that if Pickton could not have been arrested earlier, it was because of stagnation of the police investigations, that is, those of the Vancouver police and the RCMP which were conducted in parallel wand without collaboration

Role and Responsibility of the State

NWAC and the Canadian Bar Association have denounced the social systematic trivialization of the violence against Indigenous women, and are a calling for a national public injury and the development of a national action plan to end this violence

What did the Harper government do?

• Discontinued funding to NWAC for Sisters in Spirit program (researching/documenting missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada) and redirected the 10 millions fund to RCMP 2010

MMIWG

2016 Sept

National Inquiry - official commencement, terms of reference announced, government commitment, offices set up

2017 Feb

Meetings Begin - Community groups. National and regional organizations, family advisory circle, support services

2017 Statement gathering

Statement gathering across Canada until December 2018, interim report November 2017

2018 December

Final Submissions - October-December 2018 recommendations and final submission from Truth Telling Hearings

2019 Final Report

June 3, publication of final report Reclaiming power and place June 30 commission ends

MMIWG continued

Highest target of violence

National Inquiry into MMIWG Final Report (2019)

• Historic policies aimed at attacking women through: education, regulating sexuality, controlling reproduction and health care, resource extraction, and land development, perpetuating violence between Indigenous men and women

• 12x more likely murdered, 16x more likely missing sexual assaulted more often

• “Cultural genocide”

This River

• Although, heartbreaking, the film exemplifies “the beauty, grace, resilience, and activism born out of the need to do something”

Indigenous women is not just an identity but a way of life that is connected to relationship to land

Indigenous women leaders: defend, protect, enable, facilitate self-determination and sovereignty. Recognize connection to land, place, relationships, responsibilities

Example: Love is the inspiration (Nason article)

• Hunger strike (2012)

• Expansion of De Beers diamond mine

Mohawk Women

• Oka Crisis (1990) on the front lines, directed men to “warrior up”

• Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs protesting pipeline development

Innu Women in Northern Quebec/Ontario (1980s, 1990s)

• Challenged Canadian Air Force expansion in their traditional hunting territories

Lubicon Cree Women (Alberta) (1970s-present)

• Protested oil and gas development that contaminated land, resulting in heath issues, stillborn babies, decline in food sources

Indigenous Women: Looking back, moving forward and being in good relations

Indigenous futurities rely on women

• Re-connection to land and place, local, cultural and traditional knowledge systems

• Colonialism (The Indian Act), nation building, residential schools, on-going scrutiny of Indigenous bodies attempts to sever relationships

• Positions women as central to healing/community, Indigenous men must also find their own ways to healing specific to men

• Queer Indigenous scholars challenge binary systems, reclaiming

• Love is the foundation for understanding colonial violence and settler colonialism, not sentimental, but active and political

• Love motivates Indigenous people to tell Indigenous stories

• Moving forward: reclaim sovereign identities and restore scared balance