Across the northern border of the U.S., it is a little colder yet has a similar story of Native American people. Here the aboriginal peoples, or the original inhabitants of North America, are referred to as First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Like many Native American tribes in the U.S., several Canadian tribes have formal treaties with the Canadian government which establish their right to self-govern on federally recognized reserves, or areas of land held by the Crown but set aside for the use of specific native tribes [1]. In 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada “established that Aboriginal rights in Canada pre-existed the 1763 Royal Proclamation, providing contexts both for the settlement of Aboriginal land claims, where land had not been ceded through treaties, and for Aboriginal self-government as an inherent right” via the Calder decision. With pressure by native political groups, the Canadian government began funding the Indian Community Self-Government Negotiation Program in 1986 [2]. There has been significant progress made in the realm of First Nation rights especially in comparison to other countries where many indigenous peoples are not formally recognized, but the struggle for sovereignty and fulfillment of treaties in Canada is still ongoing.
For a nation to transition from complete independence to control by another nation with different cultural values and, finally, slowly returned its sovereignty, it is logical to assume change in the original nation has occured. For example, many native people were drastically changed in Northern America with the introduction of Christianity, often by force, during British, French, and Spanish colonization [3]. Thus, policies enacted by the Canadian government after establishing control over the region have impacted the lives of aboriginal peoples. The most vulnerable of this population, aboriginal women, struggle with mental illness, poverty, substance abuse, trauma, etc. the most as a result of the intergenerational impact of Canadian policies. In fact, a significant number of aboriginal women feel intimidated by, suspicious of, or forgotten by Canadian government policy and healthcare [4].
Residential schools are one powerful example of a Canadian policy that changed aboriginal peoples lives forever. Children were taken by priests, social workers, and police to local schools where they were forced to assimilate to Western practices such as Christianity. The first known boarding school for Aboriginal youth in Canada began in 1620 by a Franciscan religious group known as the Récollets. The Bagot Commision Report of 1844 concluded that aboriginal communities were “half-civilized” states and could only become civilized through schooling to “acquire the manners, habits and customs of civilized life.” After 1830, children were the main focus of this forced assimilation, and before 1858, most of these residential schools required a suspicious amount of manual labor. Since the U.S. boarding school system for Indian children was so effective at acculturation, Canadian government decided to adopt the same policy in 1879 [5].
As a result of this forced change in their cultural identity, not only did many aboriginal peoples lose their traditional language and way of life but, in addition, the roles of aboriginal men and women in Canada today are different. In Inuit tribes, men would traditionally hunt, gather food, haul heavy materials, and build and maintain hunting equipment. Women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, sewing skins, fishing, fuel and food gathering, and child care. However, each gender was in control of his or her own sphere of work, and while at home together, both were considered equal. In Central Arctic Inuit tribes, men and women socialized and worked mostly in their same gender groups meaning a large portion of their community status was determined by members of the same gender. However, the order of authority is usually young to old and female to male, but it is common for older women to be considered above answering to young men. After marriage, an Inuit woman has little control over sex and procreation. A man may share his wife or trade her with other, and he may take another wife without consultation. However, both men and women can seek a divorce by leaving [6]. Generally, aboriginal women played a major role in passing down cultural and spiritual knowledge to the younger generation [7]. In Canadian boarding schools for aboriginal youth, female students were prepared to become wives and mothers, taking away their traditional leadership roles in favor of patriarchal leadership. Due to a strict Christian code of sexual morality, girls were often requested to remain at school until they were married. If they did not get married, they worked at the school as full-time unpaid labor until they were eighteen [5].
In this male dependent role, aboriginal women are drastically more vulnerable. Aboriginal women in Canada are more likely than average Canadian women to be human trafficked, exposed to drugs and alcohol, experience mental illness or domestic violence, and a myriad of chronic diseases. “Between 2000 and 2008, 153 cases of murder have been identified in NWAC’s
Sisters In Spirit database. These women represent approximately ten per cent of the total number of female homicides in Canada despite the fact that Aboriginal women make up only three per cent of the total female population in Canada” [10].
Today, compelling research exists demonstrating the direct relationship between colonialism and health inequality in aboriginal women. “The accumulative effect of the different aspects of colonialism—displacement, residential schools, poverty, sanatoriums, racism, and intergenerational trauma—has been linked to a wide range of health disorders” [7,8]. Many of these disorders are relatively new phenomena to aboriginal culture such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is one of the most prevalent in aboriginal women. As a result of their strange nature, traditional medicinal approaches do not provide a basis for understanding these new diseases, and aboriginal youth with higher formal education tend to rely less on traditional manners of healing in favor of Western medicine [9].
While this problem seems to have dim prospects in terms of solutions, all hope is not lost. There is promising research demonstrating that this intergenerational cycle can be broken via ethically based policies and interventions. Caroline Tait while writing for the International Journal of Circumpolar Health calls for improved coordination between government ministries and human service sectors, consolidation of government jurisdiction for responsibility of Indigenous peoples, and changing attitudes from seeing impoverished Indigenous women in Canadian as “assests” rather than as “liabilities” [4]. Non profit organizations like the Native Women’s Association of Canada is one exemplary example of women who are fighting to raise awareness about the current status of Aboriginal women health disparities and have made progress in the form of lobbying, submits, outreach, and research [11].
Citations:
[1] Canada. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Publications and Public Enquiries. Treaties with Aboriginal People in Canada. Ottawa: n.p., 2010.Canada.gc.ca. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032291/1100100032292>.
[2] Bonesteel, Sarah. "Canada's Relationship with Inuit: A History of Policy and Program Development." Canada.gc.ca. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100016900/1100100016908#chp14>.
[3] The Inupiat and the Chrisianization of Arctic Alaska, Ernest S. Burch, Jr.,
Etudes/Inuit/Studies, 1994, 18(1-2), pp. 81-108.
[4] Tait, Caroline L. "Resituating the Ethical Gaze: Government Morality and the Local Worlds of Impoverished Indigenous Women." International Journal of Circumpolar Health72.0 (2013): n. pag. US National Library of Medicine. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3754611/>.
[5] Tait CL. Fetal alcohol syndrome among Canadian Aboriginal peoples: review and analysis of the intergenerational links to residential schools. Ottawa, ON: Aboriginal Healing Foundation; 2003.
[6] Klein, Laura F., and Lillian A. Ackerman. Women and Power in Native North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1995. Print.
[7] Medved, M. I., J. Brockmeier, J. Morach, and L. Chartier-Courchene. "Broken Heart Stories: Understanding Aboriginal Women's Cardiac Problems." Qualitative Health Research 23.12 (2013): 1613-625. Web. <http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/23/12/1613.long>.
[8] Moffatt, J., M. Mayan, and R. Long. "Sanitoriums and the Canadian Colonial Legacy: The Untold Experiences of Tuberculosis Treatment." Qualitative Health Research 23.12 (2013): 1591-599. Web. <http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/23/12/1591.long>.
[9] Medved, M. I., J. Brockmeier, J. Morach, and L. Chartier-Courchene. "Broken Heart Stories: Understanding Aboriginal Women's Cardiac Problems." Qualitative Health Research 23.12 (2013): 1613-625. Web. <http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/23/12/1613.long>.
[10] Native Women's Association of Canada. "What Their Stories Tell Us Research Findings from the Sisters In Spirit Initiative." Www.nwac.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2014. <http://www.nwac.ca/files/reports/2010_NWAC_SIS_Report_EN.pdf>.
[11] Native Women's Association of Canada. "Welcome to the Native Women's Association of Canada Website." NWAC/l'AFAC. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.nwac.ca/>.
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