First Nations Women and the Fight for a Voice

I would like to start off this article by saying that, as a feminist, I am aware that my personal experience with discrimination comes from a white middle class perspective. However, in this article and in others I would like to address issues that women who are outside of the white middle class encounter. As I do this, my goal is not to speak for these women but rather, it is to unite all women by creating awareness of different forms of discrimination.

A mistake that many people make is to group women into one category. The image of the woman associated with this category is usually one of a white middle class. However, there is more than one type of woman: there are women of different races, classes, and sexualities. I think that it is important to address the “complexities of women’s everyday experiences”, as Candis Steenbergen puts it in her article, “Feminism and Young Women: Alive and Well and Still Kicking”. One complexity that I will bring to light in this article is the racism that Canadian First Nations women experience.

Because of colonization that occurred in Canada, Canadian First Nations women were (and still are) oppressed. Jeanette Armstrong, a member of the Penticton Indian Reserve of the Okanagan Nation, speaks up about her experience as an Aboriginal woman. In her article, “Invocation”, Jeanette says that “the colonization process” bears out the present social condition that Aboriginal women face. Racism toward Aboriginal women exists today as socially constructed attitudes and beliefs. For example, as middle class white women and men, we often stereotype Aboriginal peoples as the ‘other’. Himani Bannerji describes the racism that women of colour experience in Canada in her article “Introducing Racism: Notes toward an Anti-Racist Feminism”. She states that “middle-class women are complicit in our domination. Being class members of a middle class created on the terrain of imperialism and capitalism […] they cannot help but be part of our problem, not the solution.” Middle class men and women also participate in racism by merely acting as a consumer in our imperialist and capitalist society.

Rose Alexis, a First Nations woman who is a member of the Sylix Nation, experienced a more direct racism. In an article she wrote for Metro Vancouver called “Racism towards First Nations people persists,” she highlights an experience she had with her daughter as they were driving at night in between the Saskatchewan and Manitoba border. Rose noticed that her gas light was on so decided to pull over at the next gas station. When no one came out to service her car (as they normally would at this particular gas station), she went inside to talk to the attendant. To her horror, she was denied service. After pleading with the female attendant (yes, it was another woman!) for several minutes, Rose was still denied service. She reluctantly decided to risk the drive to find the next gas station.

On a more positive note, today First Nations women are claiming their voice. As Rose did in her article, Jeanette Armstrong also does in hers. She unites Aboriginal women who have experienced the “dehumanizing process” of colonization which she describes as “one of the cruelest on the face of this earth”. She stands up for First Nations women by calling them her sisters whom she sees “through eyes of love and compassion. Never disgust.” She gives a message to all of her sisters out there: “To you survivors, I congratulate you, I encourage you, I support you, and I love you.” Reading those last few words always gives me shivers and I cannot help but be compelled to pass Jeanette’s message on. Not only has Jeanette claimed her voice, but she is giving courage to other women to claim theirs, too.