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Colonial impact on Indigenous women in Canada

Pre-Colonial contact, Indigenous women held a position of value within their communities. Their ability to give life, carry traditions from one generation to the next made them valuable members of their communities. Violence towards the women by men in Indigenous communities was considered a threat to the well-being of the community and resulted in the punishment of the offender. However, colonialism greatly shifted the role of women in Indigenous communities through the laws and regulations that began to be placed on marriage and other sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men. Legal impositions on sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men resulted in such relations to have underlying monetary agendas. The commodification of women through patriarchal forms of governing resulted in many Indigenous women to be involved in prostitution. With the view that Indigenous people were subordinate in relation to their European counterparts, the victimization, abuse and violence towards Indigenous women became a Colonial strategy used to maintain power over Indigenous land, territory, resources and Indigenous bodies.

Colonial violence towards Indigenous women

In 2014, Statistics Canada reported that Indigenous women made up 220 per 1000 cases of violence compared to 81 per 1000 of non-Indigenous women. These cases of violence support the claim that Indigenous women are more likely to be made vulnerable to issues such as human trafficking. Further, Bourgeois suggests that Indigenous women face such impotents due to "gender and racial discrimination, youth, extreme poverty, undereducation, unemployment and underemployment, inadequate and unstable housing, homelessness, high rates of mental health issues, drug and alcohol use and addictions, poor physical health, involvement in dysfunctional or violent families and institutions [i.e child welfare (CAS) involvement and Canadian Residential School legacy], and high rates of physical and sexual abuse."

The Residential School Systems is where many Indigenous bodies began to experience both systemic racism and violence as well as sexual mistreatment. Many children that attended residential schools experienced physical, sexual and spiritual violence and neglect. As such, the same acts of abuse became normalized and re-inflicted upon the children of survivors. The Indian Residential School system was a deliberately designed to shift the ways in which Indigenous women participated within their communities (i.e roles within the family, governance and community). From mothers being forced to give up their children to the Indian Residential Schools, to Indigenous girls facing the abuse within these schools, the lingering trauma which has left intergenerational effects has further victimized Indigenous women. This shift in gender roles impacted Indigenous women through the ways, by the trauma they experienced in Residential Schools, they interact with their families and communities. The patriarchal systems and values put in place through colonial powers left Indigenous women disenfranchised in both the colonial society and their Indigenous communities.

Indigenous girls in uniform at Blue Quills Residential School, Alberta

Although the factors mentioned above highly contribute to the victimization of Indigenous women, Colonization is one of the most highly attributed factors as to why Indigenous women disproportionately face violence. The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is an example of the result of systemic racism that tends to label Indigenous women in particular, with racist perceptions, such as stereotyping these women as dirty, sexually indiscriminate bodies that can be violated and disposed of. This is a result of racist and discriminatory views on Indigenous people, more specifically in this case, Indigenous women.

In terms of human trafficking (also referred to as sex work), it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics regarding the demographics of sex workers. However, Statistics Canada states that in violent instances related to sex workers, such as homicide, Aboriginal women in the sex trade were six times more likely to be victims of homicides. In addition, homicide cases relating to sex work tend to have a higher rate of remaining unsolved. 34% of homicides reported between 1991 and 2014 that involved sex workers remained unsolved compared to 20% of the unsolved cases involving non-sex worker victims. Further, between 1997 and 2014, 71 (of the 34%) of the women who were victims homicides identified as Aboriginal.

Draft 2 (Colonialism of gender in Canada)

Some researchers believe that contact with patriarchal, European colonial contact reduced the value of Indigenous women in Canadian society. According to them, colonialism greatly shifted the role of women in Indigenous communities through patriarchal laws and regulations placed on marriage and other sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men, to whom the Indigenous people were viewed as inferior. Legal impositions on sexual relations between Indigenous women and European men resulted in such relations to have underlying monetary agendas, a commodification of women that caused many Indigenous women to involve themselves in prostitution. During this Indigenous people as a whole were encouraged to adopt what  European Canadians and the Canadian government considered to be "Canadian culture", eschewing their native culture and traditions in favor of assimilation.

The emergence of the Canadian Indian residential school system in 1847 contributed to the systemic racism, violence, and sexual mistreatment of Indigenous people, which led to the normalization and repeated occurrence of this abuse. Cindy Hanson feels that this has contributed to a lingering sense of trauma among Indigenous women and girls that has caused them to become further victimized and disenfranchised, as well as impact how they interact with their families and communities. The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has been cited by researchers such as Robyn Bourgeois as an example of how colonial exploitation has led to systemic racism, causing Indigenous women to be stereotyped or discriminated against as dirty, sexually indiscriminate bodies that can be violated and thrown away.