Chagal4's Blog

At just about this time of last year I posted the painting below along with a note about missing and murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. More than a thousand of them. The red dress is also about redress because our federal government continues to insist that these are crimes (they are) and they should be treated as crimes (they should…and they should not) This is an issue that has been studied and continues to be studied from a number of directions. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has produced a report on more that five hundred and fifty cases with statistical breakdowns on murdered, missing, by strangers, by partners, by family members, whether on reserve or off by aboriginal or non-aboriginal persons. It would be wrong to say that nothing is being done but it would be fair to say that treating each individual case as a separate crime is myopic and begs much greater questions. Could there be serial killers targeting aboriginal women? Absolutely. Is there a deeper rift of abuse on reserve involving aboriginal girls and women? Also absolutely. Do young women “escape” to the cities ill prepared to cope with the culture shock? Do they end up vulnerable on the street? Yes and Yes. The stark reality is that a large percentage of all murders are domestic and committed by family members. The motives are simplistic or obscure but they are crimes that are relatively easy to solve. Murders of street people…by strangers, are less easily solved. Investigations of these crimes are costly and complicated. I’m not saying that police don’t try…but I am saying that resources have limits…and bodies found in ditches or in fields or lakes months after the fact don’t provide a lot of clues despite the advances in scientific forensics.

I’m not suggesting that the police should stop investigating the crimes or stop looking for the missing…but I am suggesting that the federal government (because this is a Canada wide problem) should invest in a deeper analysis of the condition of Aboriginal women (and non-aboriginal women) who are victims of violense. Patterns of behaviour need to be identified. Techniques for intervention should be developed, support systems should be put in place.

The NWAC report says that Aboriginal women make up approximately 3 percent of the general population…yet they are 10 percent of murdered or missing women.

This entry was posted on September 29, 2015 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.