Analyzing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of British Columbia: Why Indigenous Feminism is Important

            The historical oppression of Indigenous people is a present-day pressing issue that has failed to see a feasible solution brought forth by the Canadian government, Canadian police forces, and the non-Indigenous members of Canadian society. However, Indigenous women specifically have been fighting a battle of oppression and discrimination that has made them a uniquely targeted group among the already heavily oppressed Indigenous people of Canada. Factors such as, but not limited to, gender discrimination and sexism, stereotypes, violation of treaty rights and consistent neglect from the government have created a variety of complex issues that have essentially removed Indigenous women’s voices when it comes to advocating for their quality of life. Specifically, the uncomfortably high number of Indigenous women that have gone missing or been murdered in British Columbia is exemplary of the severe abuse and neglect Indigenous women face in their societies, and is also a nation-wide problem that the RCMP and the federal government have willfully ignored for far too long. These missing and murder cases indicate a strong need for a collective fight for Indigenous feminism, which is a strongly needed concept that has been absent since the beginning of the colonization of Canada. Using a number of various academic articles, books, and news reports, this essay attempts to argue that there is an extreme lack of attentiveness from the Canadian government and the RCMP towards the missing and murdered Indigenous women of British Columbia, and that Indigenous feminism is a crucial movement that has been widely ignored by a blissfully unaware society that must re-focus their attention on the importance of this concept.

In order to critically evaluate the missing and murdered cases of Indigenous women in BC, it is important to identify the root cause by retracing Canada’s steps in the colonization and oppression of Indigenous people. Venida S. Chenault’s book, Weaving Strength, Weaving Power, discusses the cultural genocide that occurred during the initial colonization period in Canada, and focuses in on the conflicting values of gender norms between European and Indigenous societies. Chenault notes that “existing structures and practices considered inferior to European societies…were frequently targeted for elimination” (Chenault 18), which essentially included every system and value that existed in Indigenous communities. The Europeans used this concept of inferiority to justify their oppression of Indigenous people, and Indigenous “systems of government, religion, education, family, [and] economy” (Chenault 18) were successfully stripped away (Chenault 18). Additionally, as a result of colonization, the Indigenous demographic suffered a severe collapse that “reduced First Nations from an estimated 5 to 12 million… to a point of near extinction by the early 1800’s… to approximately 600,000” (Chenault 22). As we fast forward to present-day, the infiltration of European systems and values has corrupted Indigenous communities through “attitudes and practices adopted from mainstream society that promote notions of male superiority, male dominance, and misogyny” (Chenault 18).

As the systems and values of Indigenous people were removed from society, taken with them was the fluidity and sexual self-determination of gender roles. This mainly impacted women, as European societies were (and still are) notoriously patriarchal and therefore sexually discriminatory. Indigenous women were stripped of all their rights, marginalized by “male-dominated political, religious and social organizations [that] were established… to effectively… diminish their rights, roles, powers and responsibilities” (Chenault 25). This brings us to the Indian Act established in 1867, which over several years completely denied Indigenous women of any human rights whatsoever. Nellie Carlson and Kathleen Steinhauer’s book, Disinherited Generations: Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and their Descendants, retells the story of two women’s experiences of having their fundamental rights taken away throughout the multiple revisions of the Indian Act. Between 1947 and 1951, Indigenous women who had treaty status but were married to Métis or non-status men were given the title of “red-ticket” holders (Carlson et al 32). However, when the Indian Act was revised in 1951, “[red-ticket holders] and their children lost all rights and were arbitrarily deleted from band membership lists” (Carlson et al 33). This meant they lost their status, their treaty rights, and any possibility of status for their children. It did not matter if a woman was a “full-blooded Indian” (Carlson et al 33); she could lose her status instantly simply because she was a woman.

Now that the historical implications of colonization have been identified and explained, we may connect this to the current issue of the roughly 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in BC. Beginning with Amnesty International’s response to the RCMP’s statistical report of missing and murdered Indigenous women, it states that “1,017 women and girls identified as Indigenous were murdered between 1980 and 2012 – a homicide rate roughly 4.5 times higher than that of all other women in Canada” (Missing and Murdered). However, “activists argue that the number is closer to 4,000” (Moll 95). Considering that Indigenous women only represent 4.5% of Canada’s population, it is clear that this number is significantly over represented (Missing and Murdered). There are also significant gaps in the RCMP report, such as failure to distinguish whether victims are First Nation, Inuit or Métis, and “in 2009… police [even] failed to note whether victims of crime were Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal in 384 or 610 homicides” (Missing and Murdered). The RCMP’s conscious neglect towards identifying these women is only one factor that contributes to the extremely unsatisfactory rate of how often these cases are solved, as well as society as a whole’s participation in the act of “convenient forgetting” (Moll 95).

To further the conversation regarding the inadequate efforts of the RCMP regarding Indigenous crimes against women, a statement was released in 2015 that stated “70 per cent of aboriginal women who are murdered in Canada [are murdered by aboriginal men]” (Galloway). This statement created a large uproar among many Indigenous communities, who took offence to the statement’s accusatory nature (Galloway). The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, who issued the statement, claimed that the result of these murders “came down to a lack of respect among aboriginal men on reserves for aboriginal women, and [he] urged chiefs and councils to take action” (Galloway). It seems quite hypocritical to suggest that Indigenous communities take more action to prevent this issue when clearly, the RCMP and the Minister should be taking their own advice. This is not to say that this statistic should be ignored, but the frequency of these murders should not be blamed on race. If the issue is Indigenous men’s lack of respect Indigenous women, we must ask where this notion stemmed from. The answer, evidently, is colonialism.

Another example of the RCMP’s negligence towards Indigenous women is the murder of Tina Fontaine, a fifteen year-old Sagkeen First Nation girl who’s body was found floating in the Red River in Winnipeg in 2014. In Sherene H. Razack’s article, “Sexualized Violence and Colonialism: Reflections on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women”, the details of Tina’s whereabouts prior to her disappearance are explained, as well as the unfortunate series of events essentially permitted by the RCMP that eventually led to her death. Razack states that “shortly before her death, police found Tina in the company of a fifty-three year-old intoxicated man”, and that “despite… noting that she was a child in foster care, [the police] released her” (Razack 2). Tina was found unconscious a while later and was taken to the hospital, yet was “released once again” (Razack 2). She then disappeared again, and her body was found in the Red River shortly after. Another Indigenous woman named Cindy Gladue was murdered by a white man named Bradley Barton, who paid her for sex. During the trial, Barton was acquitted of all charges (Razack 2). Razack acknowledges “the law participates in this form of gender disposability by accepting that the contract [of sexual intercourse] nullifies the violence” (Razack 2). Cheryl Suzack’s article “Indigenous Feminisms in Canada” concurs, stating “the law sanctions sexual violence towards Indigenous women” (Suzack 261). The deaths of these two women demonstrate a clear mistreatment of Indigenous women by police forces and the law, rendering Indigenous women as “sexually disposable” (Razack 2).

As Indigenous women continue to be sexually harassed, abused, discriminated against, and murdered, it is important to acknowledge the overarching issue that has caused a domino effect in the deteriorating respect for Indigenous women. Feminism is a concept that almost everybody in today’s world is familiar with, and it has become a worldwide movement that advocates and supports women’s fundamental human rights. Indigenous feminism, however, is a concept that was at one point very present in Indigenous societies, until it was destroyed by colonization (Chenault 18). Women today continue to fight to break down the patriarchal and colonial systems that were implemented hundreds of years ago, so it is easy to imagine how difficult this must be for Indigenous women. We may even look at Vancouver’s own Downtown Eastside as an example of the destruction of Indigenous feminism. Linda Kealey and Rhoda Zuk’s book, titled Indigenous Women: The State of our Nation, points out that of the sixty-six women that have been abducted or murdered in the past ten years, “over half… are aboriginal” (Kealey and Zuk 14). There is a certain degree of sensationalism that the media contributes by portraying the Downtown Eastside as “a hotbed of sex, drugs, addiction and crime” (Kealey and Zuk 14), but the reality is that “women live out… soul-destroying poverty… [as well as] the impacts of the intersection of intimate violence with the… violence of colonialism and gendered racism” (Kealey and Zuk 14).

The final aspect of evidence this essay will analyze in order to prove that Indigenous feminism is important is the Highway of Tears, otherwise known as Highway 16, which extends from Prince George to Prince Rupert in Northern BC. Katherine Morton’s article, titled “Hitchhiking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Billboard on the Highway of Tears”, analyzes the messages that are portrayed on the billboards, concluding that “the response by the province is one of targeting the behaviour of Indigenous women who hitchhike” (Morton 300). The RCMP, municipal, provincial, and federal government have collectively launched a campaign that discourages hitchhiking on highway 16, targeting the women who hitchhike rather than their murderers (Morton 300). The actual issue, as explained by Morton, is made up of various factors that contribute to the dangers of the highway. Factors include the highway being “remote and unserviced” (Morton 300), infrequent busses, poor cellphone reception, and the fact that it is surrounded by dense forest (Morton 302). In addition, “women frequently move along the highway in order to access social services including women’s shelters, employment services, health services and education” (Morton 305). Blaming women for their own deaths by saying that hitchhiking is a poor decision is a classic example of the Canadian government’s refusal to acknowledge that it is their lack of action towards making BC a safer place for Indigenous women that has resulted in this severe shaming and abuse.

In conclusion, the discrimination against Indigenous women in Canada is an alarmingly widespread and common issue that society has yet to fully acknowledge. The missing and murdered Indigenous women in BC is a problem that accurately represents the feelings of the government and police forces towards Indigenous women, which one would hope would not be an issue in this day and age. The degree to which “women have disproportionately suffered under colonization” (Smith 122) has clearly carried on throughout generations, and the systems implemented through colonization still negatively impact Indigenous women today in ways many people do not realize. What is needed is a society based on making power “by creating those structures within our organizations, movements and communities that model the world we are trying to create” (Smith 130). Most people in our society are not inherently bad, but are willfully turning a blind eye to the suffering that continues in Indigenous societies, and this is where it seems we should start. By taking responsibility and acknowledging gender discrimination and equity gaps in Indigenous societies, the rest society will contribute to the journey of repairing the lives of thousands of Indigenous women across Canada.

Works Cited

Carlson, Nellie, Kathleen Steinhauer, and Linda Goyette. Disinherited Generations: Our Struggle to Reclaim Treaty Rights for First Nations Women and Their Descendants. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2013. Print.

Chenault, Venida S. Weaving Strength, Weaving Power: Violence and Abuse against Indigenous Women. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic, 2011. Print.

Galloway, Gloria. “70 per Cent of Murdered Aboriginal Women Killed by Indigenous Men: RCMP.” The Globe and Mail. OTTAWA – The Globe and Mail. (April 2015). Web.

International, Amnesty. “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: Understanding the Numbers.” Amnesty International Canada. N.p., n.d. Web.

Kealey, Linda, and Rhoda Zuk. Indigenous Women: The State of Our Nations. Halifax: Institute for the Study of Women, Mount Saint Vincent University, 2005. Print.

Moll, Sorouja. “The Writing Names Project: Unsilencing the Number of Missing and   Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” Canadian Theatre Review. 168 (2016): 94-97. Web.

Morton, Katherine. “Hitchhiking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Billboards on the Highway of Tears.” Canadian Journal of Sociology. (2016): Vol 41, No. 3. 299-325. Web.

Razack, Sherene H. “Sexualized Violence and Colonialism: Reflections on the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. University of Toronto Press. (August 2016): 1-4. Web.

Smith, Andrea. “Native American Feminism, Sovereignty, and Social Change.” Feminist Studies. (2005): Vol. 31, No. 1. 116-132. Web.

Suzack, Cheryl. “Indigenous Feminisms in Canada.” Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research. (2015): Vol. 23, No. 4. 261-274. Web.