canadian aboriginal women

Aboriginal women lag in advancement of women's rights, say Manitoba chiefs
March 8, 2006, STEVE LAMBERT

WINNIPEG (CP) - While International Women's Day is celebrated around the world, Manitoba native leaders say it should also serve as a reminder that aboriginal women across Canada are struggling to live free from violence.

"Aboriginal women live in more vulnerable environments," Keely Ten Fingers, a policy analyst with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said Wednesday.

"(They're) more often to be homeless, more often to not have opportunities for employment . . . so these particular conditions do make them vulnerable and do place them in . . . environments where they experience these acts of violence."

While people of all backgrounds can go missing after living on the streets of Canada's major cities, many of those who have disappeared are aboriginal.

The Native Women's Association of Canada campaigned in 2004 for $10 million in federal funds to research what it estimates are at least 500 cases of murdered or missing aboriginal women over the last 20 years.

Ottawa agreed to devote $5 million over five years to the Sisters in Spirit program, which includes research, a national registry and a hotline.

Amnesty International Canada has called on governments and native groups to publicly condemn the high rates of violence against indigenous women and take action.

Statistics Canada reported last year that native people were three times more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

Overall, 21 per cent of aboriginal respondents said they had been attacked by a current or previous spouse in the five-year period up to 2004.

Seven per cent of non-native respondents reported similar abuse.

Some of the problems stem from the lack of rights held by women who live on reserves, Ten Fingers told a news conference.

Because provincial property rights do not apply on reserves, women and children can find themselves homeless after the breakup of a marriage or common-law relationship.

"The woman does not have the right to occupy that home," Ten Fingers said.

"If housing accommodations are not available on-reserve, she's often forced to leave the reserve."

The assembly has called on the federal government to improve aboriginal property rights.

It has also called for government funding to help improve education and economic opportunities for aboriginals.