1 Title: Violence against Indigenous and Racialized women in Canada society Referencing: APA Word Count: Student Name: Student Number: Course Code: Date: 2 The history of Indigenous women in Canada and their role within their families and societies is directly related to their exploitation under colonial rule. Since their arrival to North America, systemtic barriers created by the French and British have led to structural and institutional transgressions against Indigenous women. Violence against women during colonial rule was brutal. The deterioration of their socio-economic status corresponded to shifting changes to their political identity as well. After colonialism the role of Indigenous women in Canadian society were transformed from the subjects of Empire, straight into abject poverty and as the subjects of institutional racism and violence. This essay will explore how engendered identities exist in relation to one another, investigating how the role of indigenous women during colonial times can be compared with contemporary women’s issues in Western Canada. Hence, in this paper it will be argued that violence against Indigenous women in Canadian society leads to a deterioration of their socio-economic status, relative to the restructuring of indigenous identity during Colonial rule. Colonial rule was characterised by systemic violence against Indigenous women. This not only took the form of long-standing laws that prevented indigenous women from ownership of property or territorial rights of any kind, also policies that impacted how and when their cultures could be practiced (Fitzgerald 2006). In many respects the condition to which indigenous women became subject was characterised by dispossession, disassociation and dissociation. The Gradual Civilization Act, passed in 1857, which also marks the beginning of gender-based restrictions to Indigenous status disproportionately effecting women. This law allowed men to renounce their Indigenous status but not women, revealing how politics and reform can also be conceived along a gendered analysis as well. Colonial rule was in many ways much different than people 3 References Amnesty International. (2008). Stolen Sisters: A human rights response to discrimination and violence against Indigenous women in Canada. Canadian Woman Studies, 26(3), 105- 121. Brownridge, D. (2003). Male partner violence against aboriginal women in Canada: An empirical analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(1), 65-83. Fitzgerald, T. (2006). Walking between Two Worlds Indigenous Women and Educational Leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 34(2), 201-213. Harper, A. O. (2006). Is Canada peaceful and safe for Aboriginal women? Canadian Woman Studies, 25(1), 33-38. Moss, W. (1990). Indigenous Self-Government in Canada and Sexual Equality under the Indian Act: Resolving Conflicts between Collective and Individual Rights. Queen's LJ, 15, 279. Smith, D., Varcoe, C., & Edwards, N. (2005). Turning around the intergenerational impact of residential schools on Aboriginal people: Implications for health policy and practice. CJNR (Canadian Journal of Nursing Research), 37(4), 38-60.
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