Gail is a dear friend of mine, a wise person whom I admire as she quietly searches for the purpose of our existence. She and her husband were market gardeners for many years, and I consider those who put their hands in soil and understand how things grow to have a more profound understanding of the meaning of life than many of us. Gail shared this Mexican proverb with me, written in Spanish, which translates to: “The house does not rest upon the ground, but upon a woman.” Those words are deeply rooted in aboriginal Mexican culture, that a woman is the foundation and strength of a home rather than the ground upon which the home is built, an ideology to which many traditional cultures ascribe, and… it got me thinking.
When European men “discovered” lands in North America, lands that had been occupied for thousands of years by aboriginal peoples, these Europeans brought with them their patriarchal societal whims and imposed it on a culture they interrupted. It was through this lens that European men viewed and recorded their impressions of Indigenous women, a view that devalued Indigenous women and failed to notice or record their strengths and contributions to not only family and community, but the contributions they made to the fur trade beginning in 1670, contributions that provided for the survival of fur trade men and the success of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Samuel Hearne made two attempts, both of which failed, to reach the mouth of the Copper River on the Arctic coast at the urging of the HBC top dogs. He was only successful on his third attempt when his Chipewyan guide and close friend, Matonabbee, convinced Hearne that success of the trek was dependent on the participation of women with their mental strength and survival knowledge. In 1771, after a journey of almost two years, Hearne reached the Arctic Coast, having relied on women.
Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, founded in 1839, posts on its website the learning modules on Indigenous women’s experiences in their traditional cultures. Women were an integral part of a community’s leadership, with women and men sharing in the responsibility of land and resources, as equals. The Mi’kmaq Nation of what is now Eastern Canada were matrilineal, with an individual’s identity following the mother’s line. “As givers of life and carriers of the culture, women were vital to the survival of the people,” the website says.
The University of British Columbia’s website posted, “The Marginalization of Aboriginal
Women” which examines how racial and gendered discrimination of Aboriginal women founds its foothold and was perpetuated. “These policies had profound effects on Aboriginal women across the country… Women were respected for their spiritual and mental strength and men were respected for their spiritual and physical strength,” equals. The paper’s conclusion assures its readers that Indigenous women resisted this shift, and they continue to “reclaim their traditional power and influence.”
The European Union’s diplomatic service published a paper in 2022: “Indigenous women, the heartbeat that keeps ancestral communities alive.” The role of Indigenous women was always a position of honour and respect in traditional communities. “In many ancient societies across the world, women have been playing a crucial role in their communities’ life and also today.”
So, let’s look at how we have evolved. Statistics Canada provides detail as to gender-related homicide of women and girls in Canada and the statistics are alarming. Between 2011 and 2021 – 1,125 women/girls were victims of gender-related homicide and 93% of these homicides were committed by a male intimate partner or family member. “Despite comprising 5% of the female population, in 2021 Indigenous women/girls accounted for 17% of all gender-related homicide victims, not including those missing Indigenous women/girls whose disappearances have gone unsolved.” The Globe and Mail reported in 2019: “Violent misogyny is a threat to half our population. We need to call it what it is: Terrorism.” The Canadian Women’s Foundation posted in 2020, that many attacks on women in Canada are motivated by abuse and hatred of women, such as the Montreal Massacre in 1989, Toronto van attack in 2018, mass murder of twenty-two people in Nova Scotia in 2020, which started with domestic violence. “Mass killings are a rarity,” the Foundation says, “but murder of women by their intimate partners is not: it happens every six days in Canada on average.” In 2020, over a period of thirty-six days across Canada, ten women were killed by their former or current intimate partner.
The United Nations (UN) published in 2010, that the pattern of inclusion and sharing of responsibilities within traditional Indigenous communities has been weakened by colonial influences, leading to women being deprived of their rights. The UN has widely recognized that without exception, a community within which women thrive ensures a thriving community for all. As we watch women’s rights being shredded in the United States, the onus is on each of us to ensure that harmful misogynistic thread does not spread. I urge you to find your way to Becky Hemsley’s poem “Like A Girl” and think again before using those words as an insult. I am not sure who to credit, but the following words are words to live by: “empowered women empower humanity.”
wendistewart@live.ca
