Week 11 Urban NDN & MMIWG2S Notes

Urban Indigenous Communities

• Contemporary Perception:
  • Urban Indigenous realities are largely overlooked in scholarship, which tends to highlight rural or remote Indigenous lifeways.
  • Major urban areas function as hubs of Indigenous resistance and cultural innovation, where Indigeneity adapts and thrives.

Colonialism Types

• Classical Colonialism:

  • Also known as metropole colonialism, where colonizers share nationality with the imperial power (e.g., England in Canada).
  • The imperial nation covets the resources and labor of the colony to enrich itself.

• Settler Colonialism:

  • Involves the replacement of Indigenous populations by settler societies that create their own identity and claim sovereignty over time.

  • This is an ongoing process, not a one-time event, and includes the ongoing elimination of Indigenous cultures and communities.

  • Processes Involved:

  • Erasure of Indigenous languages and names; renaming of places through colonial surveyors and politicians (e.g., Regina, Ottawa).

  • Imposition of false narratives around settler belonging and sovereignty.

Importance of Indigenous Place Names

• Place names are crucial for cultural identity and often reflect significant historical events, relationships, and teachings.
• Their reclamation is linked to revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures by re-establishing belonging to the land.

Women, Gender Roles, and Colonial Impact

• Pre-colonial Status of Women:

  • Women were central to societies and held leadership roles, regarded as the heart of community life.
  • Colonization disrupted this status, introducing patriarchy and increasing violence against Indigenous women.

• Understanding Gender:

  • Traditional gender roles not documented due to patriarchal recording practices.
  • The view of gender as binary is a construct rooted in colonialism and Enlightenment thinking.
  • Indigenous cultures often possess a more complex understanding of gender.

Two-Spirit Identity

• Coined in 1990 to describe Indigenous individuals who embody mixed gender roles.
• Such individuals face disproportionate rates of violence (78% to 85% encounter gender-based violence).

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S)

• Indigenous women make up 4% of female population in Canada but are 10% of missing women.
• There's a stark disparity in homicide rates, showing Indigenous women face significantly higher risks of violence compared to non-Indigenous women.

Urban Migration of Indigenous Peoples

• Historical forced relocations increased urban dependency on welfare, as many Indigenous women moved for better opportunity.
• Despite contributions to urban economies, Indigenous people face systemic racism, profiling, and over-policing, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods.

Social and Political Contexts

• Urban spaces are often perceived as unsafe, reinforcing criminalization of Indigenous identities.
• This devaluation of life in specific communities stems from colonial assumptions about Indigenous presence in urban areas.

The REDress Project

• Addresses the crisis of MMIWG2S to raise awareness and demand justice for the victims.

Nature vs. Culture in Colonial Views

• Settlers viewed Indigenous peoples as primitive, existing in a subsistence economy, not capable of engaging with civilization.
• Removal of Indigenous communities was believed necessary to bring about ‘civilization’.

Vancouver’s Colonial History

• Significant Indigenous populations remained in urban areas until forceful evictions, such as the Kitsilano reserve case; an illegal and unjust process that led to loss of land and rights.

Re-inscription of Indigeneity

• The Squamish nation has legally fought for their rights, with some successes in reclaiming land lost through colonial practices.

Views on Treaties and Land Rights

• Treaties seen by Indigenous peoples as cooperative agreements, while settlers perceive them as extinguishing land rights.
• Over 600 reserves exist for First Nations, often situated far from urban centers to reduce interactions with settlers.

Demographic Changes in Urban Indigenous Populations

• Rapid urbanization of Indigenous peoples, especially after the mid-20th century, with growing presence in cities.
  • As of 2021, Indigenous population in urban areas significantly increased to 44.3%, showing urban centers as critical locales for community life.

Conclusion on Urban Indigenous Identity

• Must move beyond traditional notions of Indigeneity and recognize that urban settings are integral to contemporary Indigenous identity, which exists in spaces alongside the historical context of colonization.