Missing And Murdered Women And Girl

The harsh reality of how insignificant missing and murdered Aboriginal women have on a western run society is stemmed from the horrific epidemic of decimation and abduction of Aboriginal Peoples and that is putting it lightly. The early traumas our ancestors and relatives have experienced is systemic, in that, it has shaped the lives of which we live. Unfortunately systemic trauma isn't curable but instead felt by so many of the following generations. The horrors we've had to endure at the hand of the white man and his religion is something we struggle with and we won't just "get over". These women were sent here by the Creator to give life, not for life to be taken from them. Our sisters that fell to their demise are looked at as just another "Native" missing, and it has little to no effect on the society, but to us, it's another devastating loss. We've been offered simplistic answers regarding the many disappearances, but the questions still hover. All women have faced some level of discrimination and oppression based on the patriarchy system that devalues them.

Now if the women that went missing were white, how fast do you think they would have the police, community search parties and search and rescue out looking for them? Probably faster than you can say "what about our women? " and because we are Aboriginal Women we have been put aside and looked for when the timing is convenient for the western society. The women that have been missing for years were just given up on like their lives don't matter, and that's the problem THEY DO, that is someone's mother, daughter, sister, cousin, and friend. Their lives are priceless and they are missing, this is not just your everyday occurrence. Women do not just go missing. It is so easy for the government to use stereotypes, blaming the victim “oh they put themselves in that risky situation, what did they expect” just so they do not have to take responsibility for their disappearances. Our low status in society makes it easy for the government to turn a blind eye to what has been happening to our people and that vulnerability makes us an easy target.

Our Aboriginal Peoples have a history that many do not; we have faced colonialism, assimilation, and genocide and yet our resilience is stronger than ever. We could always put in a little more effort, time and money but we need to resolve the overall issue, we need our people to start healing. Making resources more available to those who need it the most. Some possibilities could be counseling, traditional arts and drumming and singing, also talking with elders. We may not be able to change the western societies view on us but we can definitely put work into our Aboriginal ways and exercise our cultural knowledge. Our communities already suffer from high rates of abuse, addiction, and suicide. Rather than blaming the victim for the intergenerational pain they feel, we could walk with them on their healing journey.

The pain of the past may never go away, that is to be expected but you can make it manageable. We must start looking deeper if we plan to build a productive respectable world and community for our people and children to grow in. We must start empowering our women to be the strong women that we know they can be, and with support it is possible. No longer will we blame the victims for something that has been the sad epidemic of their past and opening the door for discrimination. Women were devalued long before any of ours were taken, it was the lack of power they possessed and our low status in the western society that made it easy to ignore what happened to us and allowed us to become and continue to be an easy target. The Highway of Tears victims did not have the resources that could have possibly saved their lives, but what if we did? Would our sisters be safe, would the Highway of Tears still have that name? A lot like the simplistic answers we have received from media about their disappearances, those are questions that will continue to linger. Aboriginal communities are definitely not the richest with money, but culturally we are so enriched with tradition and pride that it shines in each and everyone within the community. Unfortunately being culturally rich does not help what is happening to our women that do not have the money to pay someone to bring them town to town, in smaller communities transit did not exist until this year. Imagine not having to depend on the government for your cost of living, why should we depend on a government that has taken so much from us and expects to apologize like that is going to take away hundreds of years of pain.

We are entitled to our truth; we can use our voices to speak up for our people because the Creator knows they have not, our truth is only one of the things they can never take away from us. I hold the lyrics to a Tupac song dear to my heart because I feel that it resonates with us Aboriginal Peoples. “And since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman, I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women and if we don't we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies that make the babies and since a man can't make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one, so will the real men get up I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up”(Tupac Shakur – Keep ya head up 1993). It is time to heal our women, it is time to use our voices, and it is time to make a stand. Fight for those who did not have the chance to fight for themselves.