Applying classical and contemporary sociological theories on the reasons behind missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.
Research has shown that there are more than 500 cases of murdered or missing Aboriginal women since the 1990s and this number is yet ‘disproportionately increasing’. [‘Missing and murdered Aboriginal women’, 1] Statistics has also noted that Aboriginal women are much more likely to fall victim to violence than non-Aboriginal women. [‘Statistics Canada’, 2] This associates to the fact that Aboriginal women and girls are the most economically and socially marginalized and disadvantaged groups in the society today. Accounting for 3 percent of the Canadian population, Aboriginal women overrepresented for the victims of
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Symbolic interactionism focuses on the meanings people use to explain behavior, objects, and events that happen in their lives. It analyzes how the socially constructed interpretations of people define the society and how these interpretations shape the lives and interactions of the people involved. In relating symbolic interactionism with this case, the Aboriginal women have been given demeaning images, which have facilitated the abuse they face. Different forms of media represent them as “‘Indian princesses’ or ‘lascivious squaws’” [Jiwani, 3]. In the past, Aboriginal women were powerful forces in the community. They were caretakers of the families and had much influence in the decision-making. In more recent years, after colonization by the Europeans, they are victimized and shamed and considered inferior. The squaw is a very dehumanizing and degrading imagination of the Aboriginal women. It is akin to the “‘Indian male ‘savage’”, a very grotesque description of the women being primitive, immoral, unchaste, immodest and dirty; satisfying the needs of the men. [‘The justice system and Aboriginal people, Ch. 13] The women have usually been associated with prostitution and viewed as ‘sexually violable’ [Torrez, 18], whether they were prostitutes or not and especially if they did not go along with the plans or authority of the men or those who were in a superior position to them. Such twisted imagery is implanted and entrenched into the minds of many people, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal; which only serves to increase the Aboriginal women’s vulnerability and powerlessness towards the violence they face, physically, sexually and psychologically. There is also the belief that aboriginal women are of the fleeting
Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. The Justice System and Aboriginal People: Child Welfare. n.d. - n.d. - n.d. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter14.html.
Jiwani and Young's argument also causes me to consider Audra Simpson's talk, "The Chief's Two Bodies," in which she discusses both how and why the eradication of Aboriginal women was necessary to the development of patriarchal colonialist society. In short, Simpson acknowledges that through the creation "status," an arbitrary blood relationship to one's Aboriginal lineage, marriage, and scrip colonialist were able to remove land "ownership" from Aboriginal women, by essentially making them invisible. In effect, Jiwani and Young reinforce and provide evidence to suggest that ideologically, the concept of Aboriginal women being invisible or contrarily "hypervisable" (899), in that they are the antithesis of the "good" Christian women (the mother, the sister, the wife, the virgin) creates a binary. These apposing ideological women cause a "moral and racialized economy of representation [that] works to privilege dominate societal norms" (Jiwani and Young, 904). What is interesting about these discursive modes is the fact that news reporting itself is a colonialist practice rooted in economic stability. These modes maintains the cycle of violence and marginalization and only counter media rooted in art, such as the "Red Dress Campaign," or the "Walking with Our Sister's Campaign" which, bring awareness to the Aboriginal perspective can act as a retaliation to standard media
LaPrairie, C. (1995). Community justice or just communities? Aboriginal communities in search of justice. Canadian Journal of Criminology. 37 (4), 521-535.
In this proposal our team seeks to explore the injustices within the Indian Act. To achieve this our proposed research will examine the target population being the aboriginal woman. The paper will further explore the oppressions faced by the aboriginal women within the Indian Act. In conclusion, this proposal will sum up the negative impact that the Indian Act had on aboriginal women and how it continues to oppress this population within the Canadian National discourse.
In the article by Erica Neeganagwedgin she examines aboriginal education from pre contact, through the Residential Schools and concludes with contemporary issues in education, focusing on women in multiple sections. Neegangagwedgin argues how colonial education curriculum in Canadian schools are marginalizing and oppressing aboriginal students by rarely including their history, heritages and cultural antecedents therefore creating a ‘denial of the selfhood of aboriginal students” (p.28). She starts by comparing the pedagogy differences between Aboriginals and Eurocentric students the stem of differing worldviews which have created this problem as Canada denies to recognize the Aboriginal worldview as legitimate. Bringing light to the idea that
Aboriginal women account for 24.9% of the general population and 32.5% of the incarcerated female population (Amey Bell, Shelly Trevethan & Nicole Allegri, 2004). Aboriginal female offenders are also responsible for violent crimes (Bell et al., 2004). Aboriginal female offenders have an adverse childhood; the childhood for Aboriginal women are centred around family violence, instability and substance abuse (Colleen Dell & Jennifer Kitty, 2012). The Canadian government is attempting to solve the over representation by implementing bills such as 718.2(e) (Gillian Balflour, 2012). This becomes a challenge to the correctional system since Aboriginal female inmates account for a great number of the prison population despite the bill 718.2(e).
Despite the decreasing inequalities between men and women in both private and public spheres, aboriginal women continue to be oppressed and discriminated against in both. Aboriginal people in Canada are the indigenous group of people that were residing in Canada prior to the European colonization. The term First Nations, Indian and indigenous are used interchangeably when referring to aboriginal people. Prior to the colonization, aboriginal communities used to be matrilineal and the power between men and women were equally balanced. When the European came in contact with the aboriginal, there came a shift in gender role and power control leading towards discrimination against the women. As a consequence of the colonization, the aboriginal women are a dominant group that are constantly subordinated and ignored by the government system of Canada. Thus today, aboriginal women experiences double jeopardy as they belong to more than one disadvantaged group i.e. being women and belonging to aboriginal group. In contemporary world, there are not much of a difference between Aboriginal people and the other minority groups as they face the similar challenges such as gender discrimination, victimization, and experiences injustice towards them. Although aboriginal people are not considered as visible minorities, this population continues to struggle for their existence like any other visible minorities group. Although both aboriginal men and women are being discriminated in our society, the women tends to experience more discrimination in public and private sphere and are constantly the targeted for violence, abuse and are victimized. In addition, many of the problems and violence faced by aborigin...
Jack Davis' No Sugar, first performed in 1985, is a post-colonial realist work written in protest of the 1988 Bicentenary celebrations. In this broadly applicable play, Davis highlights the discrimination against Aborigines between 1929 and 1934 and particularly its justification under the government policy of `protectionism'. Focusing on the experiences of the Millimurra family, No Sugar underscores the view of Aborigines as uncivilized, the attempt to assimilate them to white culture through Aboriginal reserves such as the Moore River Settlement, and the resilience and determination of Aborigines faced with almost complete disempowerment. A fundamental concern of No Sugar is the notion of the definition of power along racial lines. This concern would draw significantly different responses from original and contemporary, Aboriginal and White audiences. Economic, political and social power, but also the less tangible but equally valid linguistic power in the play is invariably held by Whites. That said, Aborigines are, to an extent, empowered by their own language and culture and their resilience in the face of oppression.
After colonization began there were countless detrimental changes to the indigenous way of life that took place. Neu (2000) discusses these detrimental changes in detail. The author accounts for the lost of their land and natural environment, the discouragement of their lifestyle focused on hunting and gathering, the separation of families via the residential school system, and the punishment received for the usage of traditional customs and language. In many ways the colonists disrespected the Aboriginal people by disregarding their fundamental needs and wants. Additionally, the process of colonization implemented some drastic gender role changes into Aboriginal culture. Colonization imposed European patriarchy, accompanied by racism and sexism, on the matriarchal Aboriginal cultures. As a result, the Aboriginal women of Canada lost their sense of purpose and responsibility, burdening them with less respect and power compared to the men. This loss contributed to many negative effects for these women and made them feel a strong sense of cultural estrangement.
Fleras, Augie. “Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Repairing the Relationship.” Chapter 7 of Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. 6th ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010. 162-210. Print.
By using different perspectives, functionalism and feminism analyze why the murders in the Aboriginal community are occurring. For functionalists, society is similar to a biological organism with dependent parts functioning together to help society reach equilibrium (Ravelli and Webber 38). The social system is at equilibrium when its members are appreciated and satisfied (Ravelli and Webber 39). The members experience these feelings through the organizations allowing them to meet their necessities and aspirations (Ravelli and Webber 38). For example, schools are functional for the members of society because they help them attain a job with a good income (Ravelli and Webber 38). However, when changes occur society will make modifications to
Her book focuses on the myriads of issues and struggles that Indigenous men and women have faced and will continue to face because of colonialism. During her speech, Palmater addressed the grave effects of the cultural assimilation that permeated in Indigenous communities, particularly the Indian Residential School System and the Indian Act, which has been extensively discussed in both lectures and readings. Such policies were created by European settlers to institutionalize colonialism and maintain the social and cultural hierarchy that established Aboriginals as the inferior group. Palmater also discussed that according to news reports, an Aboriginal baby from Manitoba is taken away every single day by the government and is put in social care (CTVNews.ca Staff, 2015). This echoes Andrea Smith’s argument in “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” that colonialism continues to affect Aboriginals through genocide (2006, p. 68). Although such actions by the government are not physical acts of genocide, where 90% of Aboriginal population was annihilated, it is this modern day cultural assimilation that succeeded the Indigenous Residential School System and the Indian Act embodies colonialism and genocide (Larkin, November 4,
Narrowing towards thesis: “Aboriginal women between 25 and 44 are five times more likely to die a violent death than other women.”( The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada).
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
If I were given the economic resources and political influence to reduce a major social problem, I would choose one which I believe is a detrimental nation-wide issue: Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This is my issue of choice because I am thoroughly convinced that it is a Canadian crisis which requires immediate correction. Indigenous women are disproportionately abused, murdered, exploited, and dehumanized within the boundaries of this country; in our contemporary societal era, their human rights are utterly disregarded. It is widely recognized that there are obvious “connections between higher rates of violence facing Indigenous women — eight times more likely to disappear and five times more likely to be murdered — and colonial