GRSJ224/MissingandMurderedIndigenouswomen

Summary

As Gilchrist (2010) has noted, since the 1980’s more than 500 Indigenous women and girls have gone missing, or have been murdered in Canada, with the number increasing each year; meanwhile, the general public has little to no knowledge of this fact, this is discrimination in the form of violence directly towards Indigenous women in Canada, and is an extremely important problem (Gilchrist,2010).

Discrimination Defined

According to the Sociology Dictionary (2017), discrimination by definition is “The unequal treatment of an individual or group on the basis of their statuses (e.g., age, beliefs, ethnicity, sex) by limiting access to social resources (e.g., education, housing, jobs, legal rights, loans, or political power” (Open Education Sociology Dictionary, 2017). Indigenous women and girls in Canada have met unequal treatment as the public and the police have neglected their murders, and the numbers continue to rise (Gilchrist, 2010). From an intersectional view, these young Indigenous women in Canada are at risk, and disadvantaged because of their race, gender, and social status in society.

Police and Indigenous Women and Girls

Palmater (2016) notes that police racism against Indigenous peoples is a major cause to the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada (Palmater, 2016). The root causes of the crisis have been overpowered by victim blaming by the police, and all others at fault have been passed by when questions of accountability are at play (Palmater, 2016). Racism towards Indigenous people has become normalized, and this fact is partly to blame for why so many Indigenous women have gone missing and murdered; the ill treatment of these women is seen as a normal fact of Canadian society (Palmater, 2016). Numerous police exhibit racist acts against Indigenous people, but the media remains reluctant to report it, which leads to a denial of the problem, and further encourages the problem to rise (Palmater, 2016). The racism that takes place on the part of the police towards Indigenous women includes: the use of extreme force, sexual harassment, and racial slurs being used when referring to the Indigenous women (Palmater, 2016). Due to Indigenous women being afraid of the police because of the racism they face, many of the crimes committed against them go unreported, which leads to more of these crimes being committed without justice (Palmater, 2016). The racist, violent, and normalized police mistreatment of Indigenous women in Canada has led to promoting more and more cases of Indigenous women and girls to go missing and murdered without justice (Palmater, 2016). Razack (2016) found that the lack of concern and care from the police puts the justice system to blame, in part for the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (Razack, 2016). One case that has been pin pointed is the case of a fifteen year old girl’s body that was found after she was released from police custody shortly after she was found with an intoxicated fifty three year old man days before (Razack, 2016). Razack puts the police at fault for this, showing a lack of attention and concern on their end, making them equally as responsible as the perpetrator in her death (Razack, 2016). As police contribute to this horrendous problem, it is also noted that the missing and murdered Indigenous women are under reported in the news (Gilchrist, 2010). The media outlets regard Indigenous women as un newsworthy victims, thus do not cover their stories on the news, or report them and do not represent them in a savoury way, when compared to the angelic, and innocent white women who receive massive news reports when they go missing (Gilchrist, 2010). Lack of news coverage for missing and murdered Indigenous women is a true, and serious part of the problem as a whole, and with more media attention this could push the police to take the cases and solve them (Gilchrist, 2010).

Resistance Movements

Due to the lack of government involvement in the crisis, grassroots movements, and Indigenous activists have been the main sources of resistance and raising awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women (Saramo, 2016). In the past, the Harper Government denied systemic causes and implications of the crisis (Saramo, 2016). The Harper Government downplayed the severity of the problem, showing that the Canadian Government at times did not put their best efforts forth to solve this, stating that it is not a sociological problem, when in fact it is, deeming violence against Indigenous women as natural (Saramo, 2016). Many search groups by police for the missing women were called off before the victims were found, which forced communities to form volunteer search groups to look on their own (Saramo, 2016). Families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls have created spaces for investigation and advocacy for those who were lost, and have taken to many forms of activism to bring about justice (Saramo, 2016). In a response to the government’s negligence, activists banned together on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to draw attention to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (Saramo, 2016). Hashtags such as #MMIW and #AMINEXT were used to bring about awareness to the issue to the general public and prompted some major news outlets to report on the movements (Saramo, 2016). Due to the government’s lack of involvement and denial through the years, Indigenous activists were forced to take matters into their own hands, by taking to protests enacting in social media movements, and even leading their own search parties to make up for where the government was lacking (Saramo, 2016). Other forms of resistance can include creative works by Indigenous women. Dumont's (2001) poems are a form of resistance, although the poems in Green Girl Dreams Mountains are not directly related to the missing and murdered Indigenous women, Indigenous poetry is a form of resistance, and works to work against racism, and colonialism itself (Dumont, 2001). By giving Indigenous people a voice this is standing up to all those who wish to silence them through under reporting on the news, violence, and discrimination.

References

Bell, K. (2017). Discrimination definition: Free Sociology Dictionary: Discrimination defined. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from

https://sociologydictionary.org/discrimination/

Dumont, Marilyn. (2001). Green Girl Dreams Mountains. Oolichan Books.

Gilchrist, K. (2010). 'Newsworthy' Victims?: Exploring differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing/murdered Aboriginal and White women.

Feminist Media Studies, 10(4), 373-390.

Palmater, P. (2016). Shining light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National

Inquiry. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28(2), 253-284.

Saramo, S. (2016). Unsettling spaces: Grassroots Responses to Canada's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women During the Harper Government
Years.

Comparative American Studies: An International Journal, 14(3-4), 204- 220.

Razack, S. H. (2016). Sexualized violence and Colonialism: Reflections on the Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Canadian Journal of

Women and the Law, 28(2).