Aboriginal Women are Oppressed in Society Essay

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.

Over the past decades, Aboriginal people (the original people or indigenous occupants of a particular country), have been oppressed by the Canadian society and continue to live under racism resulting in gender/ class oppression. The history of Colonialism, and Capitalism has played a significant role in the construction and impact of how Aborignal people are treated and viewed presently in the Canadian society. The struggles, injustices, prejudice, and discrimination that have plagued Aboriginal peoples for more than three centuries are still grim realities today. The failures of Canada's racist policies toward Aboriginal peoples are reflected in the high levels of unemployment and poor education.

It is without denial that aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people are treated differently in our society especially by the media. They are often represented as, trouble makers, violent and drunks. These remarks used by the media are giving bad impressions on Aboriginal people. Tonight, on Media Matters we will unmask the truth on the media’s treatment of the famous Sydney Swans footballer Adam Goodes. The media has heavily criticized this athlete making unfair statements causing them to break the journalist’s code of ethics, the very rule book they should be following. The code of ethics applies to all journalists and is designed to keep their reports fair, non-judgemental.

Since the colonization of Canada First Nations people have been discriminated against and assimilated into the new culture of Canada through policies created by the government. Policies created had the intentions of improving the Aboriginal people’s standard of living and increasing their opportunities. Mainly in the past hundred years in Canadian Society, policies and government implemented actions such as; Residential schools, the Indian Act, and reserve systems have resulted in extinguishing native culture, teachings, and pride. Policies towards the treatment of Aboriginal Canadians has decreased their opportunities and standard of living because of policies specified previously (Residential schools, the Indian Act, and reservation systems).

The Indian Act was an attempt by the Canadian government to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society through means such as Enfranchisement, the creation of elective band councils, the banning of aboriginals seeking legal help, and through the process of providing the Superintendent General of the Indian Affairs extreme control over the aboriginals, such as allowing the Superintendent to decide who receives certain benefits, during the earlier stages of the Canadian-Indigenous' political interaction. The failure of the Indian Act though only led to more confusion regarding the interaction of Canada and the aboriginals, giving birth to the failed White Paper and the unconstitutional Bill C-31,

Imagine a normal day. You wake up, you get ready, you probably see your mom, wife or sister. You say goodbye and head on your way. Once home, you sit down with them and talk about your day. When sad they comfort you, they love, support, care for you. Now imagine you wake up one day and they have disappeared without a trace. Gone. You are heartbroken. This is a sad reality for many Indigenous families, many women are vanishing without a trace. Between 1200-4000 Indigenous women have been missing or murdered in the last 30 years. These women are often targeted and treated as being worthless leading to little support from police and the public. After being immersed into this issue I learned lots, but I was left feeling sad,

According to the Indian Act (1876), we determined someone’s status by one’s parentage of blood quantum to know how much Indian were they? A First Nations woman, who married with white man, lost her entitlements as Indian, so did her children. However, regardless of race or ethnicity, if another raced woman married a First Nations man, she gained “status” under the terms of the Indian Act. I feel that was completely unfair, and obviously discriminatory, that horrific situation continued until 1985.

Two sections of the Indian Act are particularly discriminatory against Indigenous women. Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act states that women who marry outside of their band were to lose status, seize association with their own community, they lose ownership over any property located on the reserve and any property inherited that is located on the reserve land (Lawrence 2004: Jamieson 1978). These women would also lose access to any rights they had with status, including taking part in any band business or voting (Lawrence 2004: Jamieson 1978). Any children born to a woman who married outside her community would not be granted status or considered “Indian” in the eyes of the government and this woman and her children may be prohibited from returning to live with her family regardless of illness, need, divorce, death of her husband or separation (Jamieson 1978). Finally, through this section of the Indian act, upon marriage of an “outsider” an Indigenous woman loses her right to be buried on her reserve land with her ancestors (Jamieson 1978). Section 12(1)(a)(iv) also known as the “double mother clause” states that an “Indian born of a marriage entered into after September 4th, 1952 lost entitlement to registration at the age of 21 years if his/her mother and paternal grandmother were not entitled to registration as Indians before marriages” (Sterritt 2007).

Oppression also occurred on a political level when the Canadian government imposed systems for the Aboriginal peoples to govern them- selves. Aboriginal people were no longer allowed to follow their traditional forms of governance and the Indian Act Chief and Council System.

Aboriginal women face disproportionate challenges throughout their incarceration which impacts their successful community reintegration. Over the last ten years, inmate assaults involving Aboriginal women have exponentially grown, almost doubling, while use of force incidents have more than tripled. Rates of self-injury involving incarcerated Aboriginal women are seventeen times higher than that of non-Aboriginal women. To agree with Baldry, Carlton, and Cunneen, using Indigenous women as a focus point is beneficial because their "experiences embody and exemplify the intersections between colonial and neocolonial oppression and the multiple sites of gender and disadvantage and inequality that stem from patriarchal domination." Cunneen highlights that Indigenous women actually live in "many prisons"; the prison of misunderstanding; the prison of misogyny; and the prison of disempowerment. Patricia Monture insists that one way women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. The Task Force for Federally Sentenced Women developed a report called Creating Choices, which attempted to relocate the power to make choices in womens' lives out of the hands of prison officials and back to the women themselves because, according to the findings of the Task Force, it is only when people are treated with respect and when they are empowered can they take responsibility for their actions and make meaningful decisions. Monture-Okanee reflects on the irony of the final report

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”.

all who reside on the reserves. It was then that the distinction between Status Indians and

She argues that women face many institutional and societal barriers. In this regard, I will give examples of the institutional and structural barriers such as “The Indian Act” which have significantly affected Indigenous women in Canada in many ways including social, economic and political. While comparing feminists and Indigenous feminists, I think that Native women are different in several ways including social, cultural, historical, political and economic; therefore, Indigenous feminism is a way of practicing the values that they have been taught and inherited from their

What or who is considered an Indian is something that many people have asked. But is there one clear concise answer? No, there is not one answer that can define what an Indian is. This could range from person to person and how they define themselves or this could be a definition of what the acts define them as. The government prefers to go with the definitions of the acts. Not what people define them as. If you say your First Nations but according to the act your not defined as an Indian then you don 't get status. So what is the definition you ask? These are the definitions, the term Indian can be spilt into 3 different terms: First Nations, Metis, and Inuit.

In addition to the relocation of the natives, the dominant group justifies this action by the paternalistic model. The reasoning by the government is that the aboriginals are “Childlike and immature”, and can not conduct themselves in a civilized manner. (Kallen, 1995) Furthermore, the aboriginals are not expected to reach maturity, and they are regarded as permanent children. They can not self-govern themselves and will always be dependant on the dominant group for support. (Kallen, 1995) The dominant group makes the aboriginals believe that they are less than human, and can not do things for their self, and will continually be dependant on the dominant group. To help ensure this, the government proposed the Indian act, where the federal minister of Indian affairs, has had ultimate authority over all decisions affecting the lives and destinies of the Indians residing on the reserves. (Kallen, 1995) Throughout the years the Indian act has abled the minister to control resources which include, land, housing, income, etc. basically all aspects of Indian life. This was just another way for the dominant group to have total control of everything in Canada. This helps ensure that that the control of dominant powers is not threatened by minorities, and that the individual and collective rights of the dominant population