MMIWG: Who is finally listening?
Guest Post by Trace Hentz
My thanks to Dean Henderson for the invite to write on his blog about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls epidemic (MMIWG), an issue currently affecting Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, including the First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Native American communities. It’s described as a Canadian national crisis. It is unclear exactly how many missing cases there are in Canada.
When I began
work as a reporter at News From Indian Country* in 1996, there was not much reporting
concerning missing and murdered (Indigenous) (Native) women and girls even
though we knew it was happening. Disappearances
consistently made headlines in Canada, but rarely in the US. According
to a 2014 Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) report, by 1980 more than 1,200 Indigenous women and girls had gone
missing or been murdered in Canada.
The Native Women's Association of
Canada (NWAC) worked for more
than four decades to document the systemic violence impacting Indigenous
women, girls, their families, and communities.
Forty years? Why so little attention or mention? No data collecting?
No teams of detectives and FBI or RCMP forensic scientists?
Lots of people
go missing?
Stories and numbers
vary widely. Not all MMIWG victims were
murdered by boyfriends.
Not all the women
were prostitutes. Not all were victims
of sex trafficking. Could there be more
than one serial killer?
Remember it’s
not hundreds, it is thousands! One
glaring thing stood out: most of these
women were full blood, in terms of the “bloodlines,” sovereignty and treaty
rights.
Something was happening on such
a large scale they named a road in British Columbia, “The Highway of Tears.”
On December 8,
2015, the Canadian government announced an independent National Inquiry into
Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. It was appearing to be a new genocide.
Timeline of Key Milestones - MMIWG
In 2015, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau finally made an important announcement: https://youtu.be/fmM744rCQhc
2016: Amnesty International responds to launch
of National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (It is almost twelve years since Amnesty
International launched our Stolen
Sisters report, documenting the role of long entrenched
discrimination in putting shocking numbers of Indigenous women and girls in
harm’s way.
In 2018 the
National MMIWG said, "We want Canada to understand the breadth and depth of this national
tragedy." Plans to present its
final report will take place June 3, 2019 in Gatineau, Quebec. The report comes after 24 hearings and
statement gathering events across Canada in 2017 and 2018.*
*The report is being translated into
French, and numerous Indigenous languages, such as Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun,
and the executive summary will be available in Dene, Gitxsan, Innu-aimun, James
Bay Cree, Mi’kmaq, Michif, Mohawk, Oji-Cree, Ojibway, Plains Cree, Shuswap,
French, English, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun.
According to a news release, their final report was granted additional
time “due to an obligation to achieve the highest quality of translation.” The
final report will include the experiences of 1,484 family members and survivors
of violence and 83 experts, knowledge keepers and officials, and 819 people who
shared their experiences through artistic expressions.
When a woman or
girl goes missing, the entire future of their tribal community is affected.
These women will not become future leaders and mothers and grandmothers.
* There
were only two national Native newspapers in the 1990s in the USA: News From
Indian Country and Indian Country Today.
Caption: The Missing Women Inquiry
began on October 11, 2011 to find answers as to why the Vancouver Police Dept. and
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) failed to work together to find an
answer to why over 65 Vancouver women, and 18 women from the Highway of Tears
have disappeared in British Columbia over the past 40 years.
In essence,
these women and girls are being hunted.
Who is hunting
them?
May
15, 2019
Native women support bill in Arizona on missing and murdered
Indigenous women. (Photo-Navajo Nation)
|
MMIWG IN THE USA
Does the United States need an inquiry into murdered and
missing Indigenous women and girls? Anchorage had the third-highest number of
missing and murdered indigenous women among 71 U.S. cities surveyed. The state
of Alaska ranked fourth overall in the United States. New Mexico ranked number one for
the highest number of MMIW cases with 78.
On
May 14 2019, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a bill to create a
task force that will investigate and gather data about missing and murdered
Indigenous women in Arizona.
Ducey
tweeted that he was proud to sign House
Bill 2570,
adding, "the crisis of missing and murdered and indigenous women and girls
must be addressed."
April
Ignacio, chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic Party's Native American
Cactus and a member of Indivisible Tohono, got involved in the movement when
she began investigating cases on her own.
She’s been working to get the bill
passed.
"It
feels really good to have the bill signed, but now it is time to get to
work," Ignacio said.
The
bill recognizes the work a lot of people have been doing for years — even
decades.
For
Debbie Nez Manuel, another backer of the bill, the journey started when
her 35-year-old mother, Frances Tsinajinnie, went missing in 1973. Manuel was 3 years old.
Manuel's
mother was killed; her body found the same year she went missing.
Manuel
said she has spent her life wondering how many other women would go missing
before the issue was recognized.
"Today,
at least we have a law," Manuel said.
Ignacio
said having the bill signed opens a lot of doors to investigate why this is an
epidemic.
"There
is so much that is possible now that we have the state recognizing that there
is a problem and that they are willing to take a seat at the table to solve
it," Ignacio said.
An investigative committee
The
law calls for the creation of a task force made up of tribal government
members, victim advocates, tribal police, social workers, Indian Health
Services leaders, and more. Representatives will be appointed by officials
from different areas of government and advocacy groups.
Ignacio said
the group is expected to form in July 2019. They will conduct a comprehensive study
to gather data, and inform future decisions for how the state and local
jurisdictions can work to reduce and end violence against indigenous women and
girls in Arizona.
A limited amount of
data is available on the number of missing and murdered indigenous women in the
U.S. because of the lack of data collection on this issue. Standardized
methods for tracking and collecting data for these cases will also be
established by the committee.
Data
now on these cases is limited and scattered.
"Once we
collect data, we might see that the issue is much bigger than
Arizona," Debbie Nez Manuel said. Arizona has the third highest number
of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the country,
according to a 2017 study from the Urban Indian Health Institute. That study recorded a total of 506
known cases in 71 urban cities across the country. Fifty-four cases exist
in Arizona, 31 of those in Tucson.
April
Ignacio hopes the law will pave the way for tribal leaders and police
departments to create more accountability for investigating murdered and
missing Indigenous women cases.
"I
really want to be mindful moving forward that there is a lot of layers that are
involved," she said. The Violence Against Women Act still needs to
be re-authorized on a federal level, she said. "You can't have one
without the other."
But
for today, both women said the Arizona law is a major step forward.
"It
is very meaningful for the families and tribes that continue to have missing
members," Manuel said.
When Ignacio started
to look through her data, she realized this has been going on for more
than 50 years. One of her oldest cases is from 1968.
A new US 2019 MMIW database will log cases
of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people, from
1900 to the present: https://www.arctictoday.com/does-the-united-states-need-an-inquiry-into-murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women-and-girls/
Additional news coverage on my writing blog: https://laratracehentz.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/the-seeds-have-been-planted-mmiwg/
Trace
Hentz is an award winning journalist and the author of the book series Lost
Children of the Indian Adoption Projects. Her author blog: https://blog.tracehentz.com/
National Inquiry Deems Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women Canadian Genocide; Leaked Report
The final report from the national inquiry into cases of missing and murdered
Indigenous women and girls across Canada has
deemed the situation a genocide.
The report was leaked by CBC News, which published the details on Friday.
The report found that about 1,200 women and girls have been murdered or gone missing since 1980, some advocates believe the actual number is far higher.
The report concluded that what happened in Canada consisted of a disproportionate level of violence facing indigenous women and girls in the country, spurred by “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies.”
“Genocide is the sum of the social practices, assumptions, and actions detailed within the report,” the summary said. “As many witnesses expressed, this country is at war, and Indigenous women, girls…are under siege.”
The report acknowledged disagreements over what constituted genocide but concluded: “The national inquiry’s findings support characterizing these acts, including violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA [two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual] people, as genocide.”
The report also concludes that colonial violence, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people has become embedded into everyday life, resulting in many Indigenous people becoming normalized to violence.
The report urges all actors in the justice system, including police services, to build respectful working relationships with Indigenous Peoples by “knowing, understanding, and respecting the people they are serving.”
Actions should include reviewing and revising all policies, practices, and procedures to ensure service delivery that is culturally appropriate and reflects no bias or racism toward Indigenous Peoples, including victims and survivors of violence, says the report.
During the course of the inquiry, it notes, policing representatives acknowledged the “historic and ongoing harms” that continue to affect First Nations, Metis and Inuit families, as well as the need to make changes to how non-Indigenous and Indigenous police work to protect safety.
CBC said it contains more than 230 recommendations.
The 2014 murder of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg sparked public outcry and renewed calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
The inquiry was launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
It has heard from more than 2,000 witnesses since 2017 – including survivors of violence and family members of missing women and girls.
The final report of the $92-million inquiry is slated to be released to the public in Gatineau, Que., on Monday.
The Closing Ceremony will be live streamed:
Website: http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca
By RPM Staff, Updated June 2, 2019
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