History Of Violence Against Aboriginal Women

Barker, J. (2008). Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada. American Quarterly, 60(2), 8. Retrieved fro m http://search.Proquest.com.Ez proxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/61688929?Acc ountid=15182.

Violence against Aboriginal women is rarely understood as a human rights issue. Aboriginal women are often known to be the main victims of racialized, sexualized violence. To the extent issue, violence against women are more frequent, to be described as a criminal concern or a social issue, but it is a human rights issue to be discussed furthermore. Aboriginal women and girls have the right to be safe and free from violence. Woman are being targeted for violence because of their gender or because of their Aboriginal identity. In this essay, I will be discussing the discrimination between these two following readings, “Orientalism” and “Stolen Sisters, Second Class Citizen”.

Women no matter where they are in the world are too often victims of violence. They face higher rates than men both if it is sexual assault, stalking, or severe spousal abuse and usually the results are that women will end up extremely injured or dead. With young women suffering the highest rates of violence, Aboriginal women in particular face an increased risk of violence compared to non-Aboriginal women. Aboriginal women in Canada are three times more likely to experience crucial and severe violence compared to non-Aboriginal women. Most of these women end up missing and murdered. The predicaments of missing and murdered Aboriginal women has brought tremendous pain and suffering in homes, in families and throughout Aboriginal communities. Many sources and factors have contributed to hindering solving this issue. Media and discrimination have long been known to have played a huge role in this tragedy.

I am extremely frustrated that hardly any Canadians care about the fact that Indigenous women are three and a half times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women, and seven times more likely to be killed. I am furious that this is still happening in the twenty first century and that our society shows little to no remorse. We are supposed to help our neighbours in their time of need, not ignore them. Sadly, I am not much better as I was not aware of these statistics until I saw this on the news today. I feel guilty that I have done nothing to stop this social problem. Therefore, I cannot blame others when I am not contributing to the greater good of society. According to Audre Lorde’s article, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” I should use these feelings of anger and guilt to stop this alarming issue from continuing to happen (Lorde 126). By recognizing that this is indeed a crisis then questioning why society continues to allow this to happen, I can use my little

The Canadian government thought residential schools would be beneficial rather than day schools because they could remove children from their “evil surroundings” (Chansonneuve, 2005, p. 33). Furthermore, the purpose of residential schools was to “assimilate Aboriginal children into mainstream Canadian society by disconnecting them from their families and communities and severing all ties with language, customs and beliefs (Chansonneuve, 2005, p.5). Therefore, Aboriginal children where forced by the European settlers to assimilate to Canadian cultures and remove all Aboriginal culture from North

Indigenous women have experienced the intersection of environmental destruction, sexism, and racism in remarkably horrific ways for over five centuries. As Kimberlé Crenshaw articulates, “intersectionality was a lived reality before it became a term.” There are numerous instances of sexual violence-related racism and environmental racism committed against indigenous women. In fact, “many feminist theorists have argued that there is a connection between patriarchy’s disregard for nature, women, and indigenous peoples” (Smith 55). Cases of forced sterilization, rape, and reproductive health traumas have plagued the history of Native American women. For centuries, the bodies of indigenous women have been violated and restricted, and environmental destruction has added another layer to their struggle. I examine how these three identities— environmentalist, feminist, and

Further marginalization took place in residential schools which operated from the 1800s until 1996. Aboriginal children were removed from their homes to be assimilated into “civilized culture”. Here many Aboriginals suffered from mental, sexual, spiritual, and physical abuse. Although colonizer began to strip the rights away from Aboriginal peoples early on, the residential schools continued to contribute to the profound impacts on the educational system, community, and the traditional family of the Aboriginal Nations (NWAC, 2010). Many children in residential schools lost any

Residential schools first started in America and came into Canada “were first established in the mid-1880’s and continued for more than a century” (MacDonald, 431). After the establishment of the schools, aboriginal children were taken away from their parents and try to take away their language and culture; so that they become more cultured according to British standards. The issue with taking teaching the children something that they did not want to learn is that they will start to retaliate, so when this would happen the teachers within the residential would beat the children and force them not speak in their language and not practice and of their traditions. The British were trying to make aboriginals become Euro-Canadian; by making them only speak English instead of their native languages, they cut their hair short, forced to wear uniforms, and follow a strict

The long era of the residential school system in Canada is officially over, with the last school having closed its doors nearly two decades ago, in 1996. Yet, the problematic legacies of the residential schools and the colonial mindset behind these schools continue to haunt the Canadian education system, frustrating and undermining its attempts to educate, engage and empower aboriginal students. Strong traces of the racist attitudes and institutional disadvantages continue to inform, however subtly, integral features of the “mainstream” Canadian society. Many Native people in Canada today are met with the contradiction of being simultaneously discriminated against and patronized as historical victims. However, as Robin R.R. Gray observes, “While many of the negative learned behaviors associated with colonization, White racist culture and residential schools have been passed on to the children of [residential school system] survivors, so has a tradition of resiliency, survival, and strength” (Gray, 2011, p. 11). It is these latter traits possessed by today 's post-residential school youths, inherited from parents and grandparents who likely did attend residential schools, that educators must focus on in crafting curricula and pedagogical strategies that take seriously the continuing project of decolonizing aboriginal education.

Violence Tanya Kappo writes “This very heavy, dark, and painful truth is a reality that affects every single person who calls Canada home” (Kappo) . Her article on the CBC news web page is discussing Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s comments on the missing and murdered First Nation’s women. She argues that “the conservative government confirmed their feelings of indifference, disregard and utter lack of respect for indigenous people” (Kappo). This is a huge issue in our society today and it is an issue that needs to been made public and in now brining on more and more attention as the months go by. There is constant public exposer on sexual assaults and violence against women, but for some reason when it comes to First Nations women, the issues

I believe that this paper provides clear evidence that the challenges Aboriginal face are inter-connect and woven together, making it hard to support one without supporting the others. These are not challenges that can be simply fixed with more money or opportunities but rather complex webs that need to be untangled through compassion, education and understanding. A change in the ideas and images that mainstream society has of Aboriginal women is required to make the biggest difference. Jull et al (2015) states, “traditionally, Aboriginal women have contributed to the strength and continuity of Aboriginal societies” (p. 402). The evidence provided in the research proves that this remains true but with the support of non-Aboriginal women they

The colonial representation of first nation women is an evidence that the author provides to prove the dominance of European colonizers over Aboriginals. Ethnocentrism ruled European minds, they first arrived with ideas of what a women should be like and those ideas revolved around domesticity. The economic independence, political, spiritual and sexual rights of Aboriginal women shocked many European as women were not typically associated with authority. They saw them as a strong violation to the European ideas. Soon the judgement began and they classified them as either “noble savages” described as mate to European men or “ignoble savages” squaw drudge who lived brutal lives. Furthermore came series of regulations enforced by government to

The First Nations of our land have endured hundreds of years of suffering. Ever since the first significant European contact the indigenous people have been treated as sub-humans; savages with no religion, intelligence, or right to live. This general idea has carried through-out the history of our supposedly great country; Canada. This essay will examine the residential school system in depth. It will then relate the Canadian Government 's actions in response to residential schools, good and bad.

When we look back in Canada’s past, one of the most racialized groups in our history is Aboriginals. The Aboriginal people of Canada were singled out due to the fact their skin color and ways of living were different than others. Because of this difference in lifestyle and race, the Aboriginal people of Canada would be subjects to a traumatic experience which would change their lives. Not only would this change their lives but with it would bring them a lot of pain and suffering. This life changing experience is caused by government funded schools called Residential Schools. The intent of this essay is to look at how these schools came to be and how the aggressive assimilation by these schools caused many consequences for the aboriginal people. With that being said, we will begin this essay with a brief review of how these schools came to be

Examining the residential school system in Canada between the 1870s and 1996 exposes numerous human rights and civil liberties violations of individuals by the government. This case study involves both de jure discrimination and de facto discrimination experienced by Aboriginals based on their culture. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms specifically protects Aboriginal rights under section 25 and section 15 declares that, “Every individual is equal before and under the law” (Sharpe & Roach, 2009, p. 307). Human rights and civil liberties of Aboriginal children and parents were ignored and violated by residential schools which were fuelled by government policy, agendas of church organizations, and a