Reflection On Take Back The Night

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.

The social issue that I would like to address as a social worker is the epidemic of indigenous youth suicide in Canada. On the macro level, I believe this issue can be understood through two fundamental components: the residual effects of colonization trauma passed through generations and the effects of current colonial-based, neo-liberal institutional actions on indigenous youth.

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,

Elie Wiesel was born in the Romanian town of Sighet. His parents came from Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish families. Both of hi parents died in the Nazi concentration camps, as did his younger sister; his two elder sister survived. After the war, Wiesel went an Orphanage in France, studies at the Sorbonne, and became a journalist. The name of the book is call the Night. It were written in the 1955-1958. It also were written from South America, France. The book was published in Argentina, France. The genre of the book is a memoir. The setting of the book were during WWll in Europe. The climax of the book were Eliezer’s father’s death. The Antagonist of Night is the German SS guards and officers; the Kapos. The point of view this book were

Abigail Andrews. Amanda Bartlett. Amber Guiboche. The list of missing and murdered Indigenous women goes on (CBC, 2016). With an independent national inquiry now underway, hope is in the air to expose the social and historical factors to decode the systemic causes of violence that these women experience, and the impacts of institutional practices and polices.

I am writing you today as a young woman concerning the lack of attention towards the violence against women in retrospect to the Native American population. The fear of being a victim of assault as a young women is prominent within the society in which we live today. However, there is some relief in the fact that there are resources available at my disposal if I was to experience assault. Yet, there is a large portion of women that do not have that reassurance, and the likelihood of them experiencing assault is even greater than my own. This portion of the women population is Native American women. I will admit that the severity of the issue in concerns with the native population is something that I just recently became aware of. et I have

The film Highway of Tears brought to light many issues faced by Indigenous persons however, its main focus was the missing and murdered women found along Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia. Majority of the women who are missing as well as those who were murdered are Indigenous women. This film displayed that although there are ways to prevent and possibly end the violence against Aboriginal women, no action was being taken by police or other government agents to do so. It was discussed how this as well as other wrongs done to Indigenous persons and communities, is a result of past and present colonialism.

In the article “Domestic violence against indigenous women is everybody’s problem” domestic violence is depicted as a serious social problem that involves “unspeakable acts of violence” that leaves victims experiencing fear and despair (Taylor 2014). More specifically, the social construction of domestic violence will be discussed with an emphasis on Aboriginal women and a typology of intimate partner violence. The social construction of domestic violence has serious implications for victims of domestic abuse because there is a failure to address the processes that perpetuate the violence. Instead, domestic violence is addressed through the illusion of social support. What is evident is that domestic violence is a social problem that requires comprehensive services, particularly for indigenous women, to address the complexity of the interaction between the individual’s social location and the causes that lead to the violence.

After I read the article, I had to sit back and digest the material for an entire day. The article force me to do some soul searching regarding my position on power, privilege, and oppression. Have I been so oblivious to my surroundings? I quickly thought about the six core values of social work: service, social justice, dignity and worth, importance of human relationships, integrity, & competence. Will I be able to help others; because like Spencer (2008) I took somethings in life for granted? It was ironic when I was reading the article that Martin Luther King Jr, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandella came to mine. They all fought for the injustice and sacrificed much to change the minds of the one in the position of power.

The 11th Memorial March for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women in Montreal took place on October 4th, 2016 at Place Émilie-Gamelin (Berri-UQAM metro). The march was organized by Missing Justice, Quebec Native Women and the Centre for Gender Advocacy to honour the memories of murdered and missing indigenous girls and women, and to raise awareness about the way in which systemic violence is fostered by governments, media, the legal system, police forces, and the education system, along with demanding that the national inquiry bring real systemic change.

In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel writes about his time in the Holocaust, where Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler’s rule killed six million Jews and five million non-Jews. The story specifically revolves around his time in the concentration camps, including the notorious Auschwitz and one of its sub-camps, Buna. Within this memoir, Elie Wiesel describes his experiences as he changed during the Holocaust, both spiritually and morally.

Indigenous women are the most at risk group in Canada. Indigenous people make up four percent of Canadas population however, they are seven times more likely to be murdered (Emmanuelle Walter, 2015 p. 87). This is directly linked to Canada’s dark past. Indigenous people were the only ones occupying Canada until the 1600’s. During this time the Europeans came to Canada to extract resources, but soon after they realized Canada was a beautiful country they would like to live in. This resulted in the colonization of Indigenous people through the fur trade, treaties, Residential School and the Indian Act. Through these acts Europeans were able to modernize, which has contributed to health, education and safety problems for Indigenous women.

Crenshaw proves that all forms of oppression must be taken into account, as is the case in pinpointing the root causes of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In her analysis, she explains how in society, the treatment of women of colour differs greatly from that of white women because of stereotypical depictions of women of colour in media. Although she mainly cites this by delving into the stereotypical representation of Black women, this treatment is crucial to Indigenous women as well. Indigenous women are often seen as negative stereotypes of their cultures, which contributes to the disproportionate rates of violence against them. Kimberle Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality is integral in addressing this systemic and institutional

In chapter ten, author Bruno Nettle takes the reader to the town of Browning, Montana, where he is about to witness a modern Native American ceremony. As he observes, he notices that only one-half of the people there are actual Native Americans. The rest are are white tourists and innocent observers just like himself. Eventually, somewhere around eighteen singing groups appear from different tribes and reservations. They will be summoning the dancers into what is known as the grand entry. Nettle notices that the overall style of the music remains the same among all of the different groups, or `drums.' People are able to interact by taking pictures, video and tape recording what goes on. In that

What you know and believe in can change at any moment. We see a first hand account of this in the book Night. Everyday we see the jews face the horrors of the Buna work camp, as a result of this we see most people change their ethics. As fight or flight instincts kick in, people abandon their family and friends to survive. Elie fights an internal battle to keep his father alive and strong during these tragedies. As others around him give in to the cruel punishment, Elie himself wants to drift towards the darkness. When people are faced with such cruel punishment everyone changes to some extent. For some the change is instant but for most the process of breaking their will is extensive.