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
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,
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.
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.
LaPrairie, C. (1998). The new justice: Some implications for aboriginal communities. Canadian Journal of Criminology. 40 (1), 61-79.
The topic for our research paper is oppression against women in the Indian Act. Discrimination against Aboriginal people has been a key issue for many years; however society generally skims the surface of this act and tends to give lip service to it without acknowledging the deeper issue of how these oppressions come with it. In the beginning of our research we quickly made a parallel between the oppression of Aboriginal women and the injustices they face and the breakdown in Aboriginal families and communities. As future social workers working from an anti-oppressive practice perspective the proposed research will help acquire the knowledge in building transformative politicized social work. Our team feels that by focusing on the female gender and how these women throughout history have been oppressed we will be able to perform our roles as social workers from a truly empathetic position; thus our future work with all aboriginal people will be more effective.
As European domination began, the way in which the European’s chose to deal with the Aborigines was through the policy of segregation. This policy included the establishment of a reserve system. The government reserves were set up to take aboriginals out of their known habitat and culture, while in turn, encouraging them to adapt the European way of life. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909 established strict controls for aborigines living on the reserves . In exchange for food, shelter and a little education, aborigines were subjected to the discipline of police and reserve managers. They had to follow the rules of the reserve and tolerate searchers of their homes and themselves. Their children could be taken away at any time and ‘apprenticed” out as cheap labour for Europeans. “The old ways of the Aborigines were attacked by regimented efforts to make them European” . Their identities were threatened by giving them European names and clothes, and by removing them from their tra...
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.
Feminism and Indigenous women activism is two separate topics although they sound very similar. In indigenous women’s eyes feminism is bashing men, although Indigenous women respect their men and do not want to be a part of a women’s culture who bring their men down. Feminism is defined as “The advocacy of women 's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” In theory feminism sounds delightful despite the approaches most feminists use such as wrong-full speaking of the opposite gender. Supposedly, feminism is not needed as a result of Indigenous women being treated with respect prior to colonization. Thus, any Native woman who calls herself a feminist is often condemned as being “white”. This essay argues that Indigenous women may
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...
Neylan (2013) suggests that the Aboriginal women of Vancouver have perhaps experienced a similar and lingering attitude to those of the colonists. As well, it seems the Canadian justice system has also retained some of the same cruel and biased ideologies as its earlier colonialists. Neylan identifies a parallel here, explaining both colonists and the current justice system treat natives in a demeaning manner, disregarding the value of human life because of an indigenous lab...
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).
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
Both males and females amongst the aboriginals are overrepresented in the various levels of secured custody. However, based on the enormity of the native involvement in the Canadian Penal System, there have been a number of commissions meant to resolve the dilemma regarding the aboriginal people (Crnovich 2005 : 8). While both the premises of the aboriginal and also the contemporary models related to justice have been identified as being mu...
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