Intersectionality and the Lives of Indigenous Women

Indigenous women as a group have been victims of extreme violence and discrimination for centuries. The momentum for understanding the underlying reasons for such horrific forms of discrimination started with the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women in America and Canada. Such forms of violence can be seen as a silent genocide, and an urgency to combat the human rights atrocities of indigenous women needs international recognition. As stated by the “IACHR: booklet on Indigenous women” (2017, p. 6), “Violence against indigenous women is closely related to the continuous and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by indigenous women ''. Thus, factors of disadvantage that indigenous women face such as ethnicity and socio-economic status can be recognized as overlapping with the gender-perspective. The atrocities against indigenous women based on gender-violence and ethnic discrimination are further affected by patriarchal paradigms that focus on indigenous self-determination as a male priority (Kuokkanen, 2014). This factor would inhibit the right of indigenous women to participate in equal opportunities for economic and social development.

The "gender perspective" acknowledges gender-based violence as an extremely large human rights abuse faced by indigenous women in the Americas and Canada (Gunn, 2017). In Canada, cases of murdered and missing indigenous women have been explored over the past few decades. The report found that even in the case of Helen Betty Osborne, a Canadian indigenous woman who was sexually assaulted and killed by four White men, it took fifteen years for one of the men to be prosecuted (Gunn, 2017). Thus, the negligence of the criminal justice system to protect indigenous women and prosecute the abusers of their human rights perpetuates the ongoing violence towards indigenous women. The failure of state systems to protect the rights of indigenous women against gender-based violence increases the heightened risk of indigenous women specifically being targeted through violence.

The major issue of femicide which is considered a sex-based crime specifically targeted towards women is also a form of violence that indigenous women are extremely vulnerable to. According to Speed (2016), the city of Juarez in Chihuahua is one of the most high-profile cases of femicide with indigenous women in Mexico and Central America experiencing violence through organized crime such as drug traffickers and even policemen. This form of human rights abuse is specific towards the gender-approach, as cases of femicide refer exclusively to violence against women.

Tina Fontaine is another example of a Canadian indigenous woman whose body was found in the Winnipeg Red River in Manitoba (Palmater, 2016). Her case set a precedent on attempting to understand why indigenous women, in particular, were murdered. As Palmater (2016) states, Tina’s murder was, “facilitated by a lethal form of racism that infects federal and provincial policies and service providers, including, in particular, the justice system” (p. 5). Palmater (2015) reported evidence of death at the hands of law enforcement, and police brutality directed specifically towards indigenous women in Canada due to strong in-built state racism. Thus, indigenous peoples' human rights tend to fade into obscurity as bloodshed against indigenous people is exempt from punishment by the state.

Furthermore, factors of gender and ethnicity have formed dangerous stereotypes concerning indigenous women. Ysinia, a young Sinail- a Maya- Mam indigenous woman left Quetzaltenango, Guatemala to flee her husband due to extreme domestic violence (Speed, 2016). After barely escaping the attempted rape of two US armed men who held Ysnia hostage for ransom, she was eventually apprehended by US Border Patrol Authorities where she was discriminated against (Speed, 2016). As the author states, “immigration officials were mobilizing long-standing discourses of race and gender in indigenous communities and outside them that hold that indigenous women who leave the community bring danger on themselves, and thus are to blame for rape or other violence when it happens to them" (Speed, 2016, p. 10). This proves that authority figures should be held responsible for infiltrating state ideologies with a racist discourse that puts indigenous women at risk by portraying them as weak and subordinate, instead of groups whose human rights have been callously abused.

A significant problem seen is the number of indigenous women in the poverty threshold in the Americas and Canada. According to the IACHR: booklet on Indigenous women (2017), indigenous women face discrimination in the labor market, which in turn limits their access to sufficient healthcare, basic needs such as food and water, education, as well as social security. In Guatemala, 60% of the population lives in extreme poverty with corrupt economies and organized crime cartels causing an upsurge in violence towards indigenous women (Nimatuj, 2016). Thus, indigenous women in America and Canada experience gendered-violence as ethnic targets who are unable to access their basic human rights based on their socio-economic status. The triple factor of intersectional discrimination rears itself in the lives of indigenous women who need urgent protection by states.

However, under international law there has been criminal prosecution of Canadian cases where indigenous women victims of gender violence, female genital mutilation, marital rape, and domestic violence have been able to come forward and seek justice. Other advances in the Americas have been made in recognizing violence towards indigenous women during wartime. In 2016, colonel Esteelmer Reyes Girón and former military commissioner Heriberto Asijwere sexually violated fifteen Q’eqchi’ women from the community of Sepur Zarco, Izabal and were charged with sexual violence and crimes against humanity. This showed significant progress because “the Sepur Zarco case set a precedent nationwide with the courts accepting sexual violence against indigenous women as a weapon of war in the Guatemalan context” (Nimatuj, 2016, p. 2).

Future solutions to combat the discrimination of indigenous women should focus on generating spaces of coordination between traditional indigenous justice systems and state-operated justice systems. Spaces of coordination should give priority to the eradication of institutional discrimination from gender and ethnic perspectives. Furthermore, human rights defenders who are indigenous women should be protected and empowered as global leaders. Indigenous scholars such as Shareena Clanton and Kia Dowell of aboriginal descent are primary examples of indigenous women leaders who strive to change policies in discriminatory constitutions neglecting indigenous socio-economic empowerment. Furthermore, it is vital to incorporate the gender perspective alongside the intercultural, when adopting more holistic mechanisms to prosecute acts of violence against indigenous women.

While NGOs and non-government projects have pushed for positive change against various forms of violence against indigenous women through humanitarian projects and social media platforms, it is paramount that discrimination and dehumanization is also combated directly by the state, and that justice systems are re-evaluated with attention to the specific grievances of indigenous women. The intersectionality of ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status sheds light on the extreme vulnerability of indigenous women who must be empowered based on their gender and ethnicity while being given equal and non-discriminatory opportunities to thrive and develop their socio-economic status.

References

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Nimatuj, I. A. V. (2016). Struggles and obstacles in indigenous women’s fight for justice in Guatemala. Retrieved from https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/ handle/ 2152/627 55/8Portal_issue11_2016_VelasquezNimatuj.pdf?sequence=3

Palmater, P. (2016). Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28 (2), 253-284. Retrieved from https://femlaw.queensu.ca/sites/ web publish .queensu.ca.flswww/files/files/PalmaterCJWL2016.pdf

Speed, S. (2016). States of violence: Indigenous women migrants in the era of neoliberal multicriminalism. Critique of Anthropology, 36(3), 280–301. Retrieved from doi:10.1177/0308275x16646834