the rights for countless other oppressed women. Bill C-31 was instated in 1985 with hopes to amend the Indian Act. Through the perseverance of the Indigenous population after decades of oppression, Bill C-31 was instated. This amendment to the Indian Act took into consideration the individuals who had lost their Indian status. Many of the people that reclaimed their status were Indigenous women that had it taken from them after wedding non-Indigenous peoples. In the mother regaining her status, she then had the capability to pass it down to her children. Bill C-31 made it possible for women to move back to reserves and to once again participate in their culture. This change in legislature helps to rebuild Indigenous women’s relationship with …show more content…
their culture, however they are devalued as a whole by society because of legislation. Legislative contributes to Canadas alarming problem regarding violence directed towards Indigenous women which stems from colonization. Colonization has left behind the legacy of violence directed towards Indigenous women. European settlers brought many things with them when they came to Canada, the patriarchy being one of them. Settlers transformed Indigenous values about gender and enforced a Eurocentric way of thinking once again. Traditional Indigenous communities viewed women as the back bone of their society and gave them central roles that carried a great deal of responsibility.
This was unheard of to the settlers who instead seen women as objects to be obtained where child rearing, and cleaning was the only importance they had in society. In European society, wives were to be delicate and docile. Those who did not behave in such a way were often branded as deviant. This allowed society to see them as “sub” human making them more susceptible to maltreatment. Women were then seen as sexual beings that did not fit into the mold that society put out for them. Colonization has had a multitude of negative effect on the Indigenous population, one of which is the continued devaluation of women which promotes violence. The violence of colonization directed towards Indigenous women was “an integral part of the conquest and colonization” which furthered the devaluation of …show more content…
women. Statistics uphold the claims many Indigenous women have made about the violence they have endured. The rate for homicide among Indigenous women was seven times higher than for non-Indigenous women and “indigenous women are five times more likely than other Canadian women of the same age to die of domestic violence” which shows statistics show just how severely damaged Canadian society is by colonization . The brutality experienced by Indigenous women is regularly executed by somebody of another race. This is true for 90% of rapes and 75% of private exploitations. Indigenous women in New York City participated in a study about violence finding that 65% of the indigenous women that participated had experienced interpersonal violence, with 28% reporting childhood physical abuse, 48% rape, 40% domestic violence, and 40% multiple forms of victimization. Indigenous women are disproportionally abused demonstrating the racist and colonialist ideals of society. Canada is finally facing the facts about missing and murdered Indigenous women.
These women never get to go home. Over 1,200 Indigenous women have been murdered or have gone missing in Canada within the past thirty years. Indigenous women are targeted where they are viewed as less than human. These women are not seen as individuals that have friends, family, children, and a community that will be broken without them. Indigenous women are all too often only seen by the colour of their skin. In viewing their colour, assumptions are made that they are live dangerous lifestyles, participate in sex work, and are of no value to society. The seriousness of the violence towards Indigenous women is often
ignored. Today, women not only have to face their abusers, but rather a society that does not take their suffering seriously. Many women feel that the police are unreliable because they are not invested in the rights of Indigenous women, which in collaboration with incompetence leads to the demand for justice to be silenced. This ignorance of the system allows violence to continue to degrade and dehumanize women. On reserve authorities often do not have the authority to persecute people that do not have an Indigenous lineage which is problematic as eighty percent of attacks are committed by non-Indigenous peoples . There is a growing perception that abuse directed towards Indigenous women is more accepted which is a possible theory for why the court system is negligent. If the victims of violence were white, it is believed that there would have been a greater reaction and response to the issue. In other words, not nearly as many white women would have gone missing or had been murdered because the problem would have been dealt with long before it had escalated to the number of Indigenous women that are no longer here today. Indigenous women may also be afraid to report their victimizations because nothing will be done about it. An example of this
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,
In a forthright manner, Yasmin Jiwani and Mary Lyn Young examine the "discursive practices used by the news media" (897) in relationship to the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) in Canada. Opening their argument, the authors outline their mode of discussion by stating that their paper will look through a feminist lens at the radicalized and sexualized violence that has become nothing short of an epidemic. By specifically focusing their attention towards to MMIW, Jiwani and Young structure their investigation in a documentary-style discussion, which reveals the ideological and systemic racism and sexualisation embedded within North American culture and media towards Aboriginal women. Their mode of appeal explicitly lays out, in a
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
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.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
Our Indian legislation generally rests on the principle, that the aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the State. …the true interests of the aborigines and of the State alike require...
There is a belief that before European Contact Indigenous women had a huge role of leadership and responsibilities along with the men. After European Contact Indigenous women had very minimal rights. Men were considered their social, legal and political masters if you will. If a women had an argument or suggestion to discuss with the tribe or council she must discuss the issue through her husband, for her husband to later mention the issue. To this day this affects Indigenous women with trying to get their views back to what it once was. European contact resulted in Indigenous women not having the equality that they had before. Indigenous women are working hard with protesting and trying to win their equality
The Indian act, since being passed by Parliament in 1876, has been quite the validity test for Aboriginal affairs occurring in Canada. Only a minority of documents in Canadian history have bred as much dismay, anger and debate compared to the Indian Act—but the legislation continues as a central element in the management of Aboriginal affairs in Canada. Aboriginal hatred against current and historic terms of the Indian Act is powerful, but Indigenous governments and politicians stand on different sides of the fence pertaining to value and/or purpose of the legislation. This is not shocking, considering the political cultures and structures of Aboriginal communities have been distorted and created by the imposition of the Indian Act.
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...
After watching Finding Dawn, my impression of the film documentary had hit me hard, especially due the fact that I am a female and strikes me to empathize with women who have who are treated like a ghosts by the government. No one wants to be have that treatment to them. You have to have no ounce of humanity in you to ignore the issue, specifically indigenous women, who have to put their lives at risk in order to survive because of a systemic discrimination that constantly ignores this part of society that where recognition is lacking.
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...
Health care inequities can be elucidated by the research that identifies the social, economic and political ideologies that reflect aspects of cultural safety (Crandon, 1986; O’Neil, 1989 as cited in Browne & Fiske, 2001). There are various factors that affect the mistreatment of aboriginal peoples as they access health care in local health care facilities such as hospitals and clinics. Aboriginal women face many barriers and are discriminated against as a result based on their visible minority status such as race, gender and class (Gerber, 1990; Dion Stout, 1996; Voyageur, 1996 as cited in Browne & Fiske, 2001). A study done on Aboriginal peoples in Northern B.C. showed high rates of unemployment, underemployment and dependency on social welfare monies (Browne & Fiske, 2001). This continued political economic marginalisation of aboriginal peoples widens the gap between the colonizers and the colonized. The existence of racial profiling of aboriginal peoples by “Indian status” often fuels more stigmatization of these people because other Canadians who do not see the benefits of compensations received with having this status often can be resentful in what they may perceive is another compensation to aboriginal peoples. The re...
...n.p.). Soon the Canadian government amended Section 12 in 1985, and Bill C-31 was passed for those who lost their status and want to regain them (Hanson, n.p.). Unfortunately a fault existed in Bill C-31, which stated that the statuses of the aboriginals can only be passed on for one generation. Seeing as this was still unconstitutional, the government is now attempting to again retract its footsteps by amending the Indian Act altogether (Hanson, n.p.), but is still meeting difficulty in doing so.
In a 1999, a national survey was conduct on the domestic violence of women in Canada . The study concluded that the highest prevalence of abuse was found in the homes of immigrants from developing countries. This study shows that most immigrant women internalize and hide the crimes due to social stigma, shame, cultural/religious constraints and lack of community resources (Preisser, 1999).