Indigenous people on the land we call Canada experience heightened levels of gender-based violence largely due to settler colonialism, which systemically and culturally demeans and victimizes Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and LGBTQIA+ people. It is thus vital to examine this ongoing violent means of colonization when discussing the prevention of gender-based violence in Canada, as it has and continues to lay a foundation for the state itself. The statistics below help to illustrate the disparities between the levels of gender-based violence that Indigenous people, and non-Indigenous people experience in Canada:
Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIW
Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG
As such, the following pages dive deeper into some of the specific causes and manifestations of gender-based violence against Indigenous people.
Colonization as Gendered Violence
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This page provides a brief historical basis for the information presented in the following sections. It covers the historic and ongoing connection between colonization and gender based Violence
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
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This page covers the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLBTQIA+ in Canada, and how it was brought to light through a government Inquiry in 2019.
Resource Extraction and Violence Against Indigenous Women
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This page covers the connection between Violence against Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ and resource extraction across Canada.
The Legacy of Residential School
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This page explains the connection between Indian Residential School, its legacy of intergenerational trauma and subsequent high rates of gender based violence against Indigenous peoples.
This page explains how the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in the child welfare system is an ongoing cause of the high rates of gender based violence that Indigenous people experience.