Attitudes about Aboriginal women focus of new research project

Muriel Stanley Venne is not a fan of more studies, more committees and more petitions when it comes to examining the issues facing Indigenous communities. But she is reserving judgement on the latest research project announced in early December by Aboriginal Relations Minister Kathleen Ganley.

The province followed up on the federal government’s details on how it would proceed with a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls by announcing it would be undertaking a research project to get a handle on provincial attitudes toward Aboriginal women. No such study has ever been conducted in Alberta.
“If it articulates the discrimination and racism that exist against Aboriginal women then I’m very much in favour of it,” said Venne, founder and president of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women. “If it achieves that, it is very useful.”

The IAAW is one of the organizations the province will be working with as it sets parameters for the study. There is very little detail available at this point, says Jessica Johnson, director of communications for Aboriginal Relations.

“We’re still going through the process of exploring what it’s going to look like,” she said.

The plan is for Aboriginal Women’s Initiatives and Research, which falls within the Aboriginal Relations department, to contract a researcher to identify myths and stereotypes and how these perceptions contribute to the barriers faced by Indigenous women, says Johnson.

April Eve Wiberg, founder of Stolen Sisters, sees the value in such research.

“The marginalization definitely needs to be looked at because it’s social, political. It can be economic. It can happen in the workplace, in the learning institutions,” she said.

Wiberg would like to see Indigenous organizations, particularly Indigenous women’s organizations, and Indigenous women, from “all different types of background, all different walks of life,” included extensively in the research.

“Especially those (women) who have experienced discrimination. Everybody has a story to tell,” she said.

Venne wants people to think about why it is the Edmonton Police Service gets the DNA, names and identification of the Aboriginal women working the streets; why it is that Aboriginal girls attending high school are worried that they may be counted among the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls; and why it is that Aboriginal women are a dramatically growing in the number of those incarcerated.

“It’s pretty horrific in a country as Canada is, that believes it offers care and protection to all its citizens,” she said.

Venne is adamant that for the study to be of use, the information garnered has to be put into an action plan.

Wiberg agrees, saying it should be used to raise awareness in the public about discrimination and “what that looks like.” In her experience, she says, she has come up against the attitude that being prejudiced against minorities is unacceptable – except when it comes to Aboriginal peoples. “Especially the women who face a double burden. We’re sometimes discriminated against because we’re women and additionally because we’re Indigenous women.”

That discrimination exists in both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal populations, Wiberg points out.

Both Venne and Wiberg would like to see the research conducted by an Aboriginal person or Aboriginal organization.

Wiberg does not anticipate the research project will uncover anything Indigenous women don’t already know or haven’t already experienced, and the public isn’t already aware of to some degree. But she hopes it leads to a clear path of zero tolerance when it comes to discrimination.

Johnson says no timeline has been set as to when the research project will get underway although “early this year” is the goal.