Aboriginal Women in Canada

The issue of violence against Aboriginal women is my chosen subtopic that strongly contributes to the history of Aboriginal women’s struggle for rights and identity in Canada. To search relevant newspaper articles for this topic, the databases that were used were Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, as well as Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies. The reason these two databases were chosen was because Canadian Newsstand offered articles from multiple newspapers in the country, therefore providing me with diverse news in different provinces other than Ontario. The article I obtained from Canadian Newsstand was Canada Called on to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women from the Leader Post newspaper in Saskatchewan. Lexis Nexus provided one article I chose titled AFN Chief Finds No Support From Premiers; Shawn Atleo Left Meeting With No Assurances to Help with Public Inquiry Into Violence Against Women from the Nanaimo Daily News in British Columbia. For my academic journals, I chose Women’s Studies International and Sociological Abstracts through ProQuest as databases to obtain the Male Partner Violence Against Aboriginal Women in Canada: An Empirical Analysis article and Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women’s Activism Against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada article. The reason I chose those two databases for my scholarly articles was because both were top databases for researching articles about indigenous women. All articles, upon reading, were informative, and provided sufficient information as guidelines for this assignment.

References
Audd, A. (2012, July 26). AFN Chief Finds No Support from Premiers; Shawn Atleo Left Meeting with No Assurances to Help with Public Inquiry Into Violence Against Women. Nanaimo Daily News [Nanaimo], p. A12. Retrieved from http://www.L exisne xis.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lnacui2a pi/api/version1/getDocCui?Ln I=566B-1721-DYW43SC&csi=397236&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=

References: Audd, A. (2012, July 26). AFN Chief Finds No Support from Premiers; Shawn Atleo Left Meeting with No Assurances to Help with Public Inquiry Into Violence Against Women. Nanaimo Daily News [Nanaimo], p. A12. Retrieved from http://www.L exisne xis.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lnacui2a pi/api/version1/getDocCui?Ln I=566B-1721-DYW43SC&csi=397236&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns= t&hgn=t&o c=00240&perma=true. National Chief Shawn Atleo called upon Canada’s premieres to support for a deeper concern for violence against aboriginal women and girls. He called for a national inquiry into missing and slain women. Premieres did not fully confirm a national inquiry, but promised to heighten awareness, and combat violence against the women. Barker, J. (2008). Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women 's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada. American Quarterly, 60(2), 8. Retrieved fro m http://search.Proquest.com.Ez proxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/61688929?Acc ountid=15182. Reviews the amendments of the 1868 Indian Act, highlighting the conflicts of superiority of rights to Indian men over women. Discusses the avoidance of violence and discrimination against women within communities and the need for an equal relationship between genders Brownridge, D. A. (2003). Male Partner Violence Against Aboriginal Women in Canada: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, 65-83. Retrieved f rom DOI: 10.1177/08862605 02238541. Using an empirical approach, Douglas Brownridge conducted a large-scale sample experiment between Canadian women, focusing on the significance in increase of violence with Aboriginal Women based on many variables. Violence against Aboriginal women increased at all levels of severity, and are more likely to be ongoing than other non-Aboriginal relationships. Kyle, A. (2008, December 4). Canada Called On to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women. Leader Post [Regina, Sask.], p. A7. Retrieved from http://search.proqu est.com.ezproxy.library.yorku. ca/docview/350105424?accountid=15182. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women expressed concern about hundred of cases of missing, as well as murdered aboriginal women in Canada in the past two decades. The UN called on Canada to establish a national action plan for families that include services for aboriginal women experiencing violence, including shelter, and government care, and information about missing persons. In all articles chosen from the selected databases, the prime focus is the violence against Aboriginal women. A common idea that lies within these articles is the lack of attention towards Aboriginal women compared to other females, or cultural societies in general. This underlying social problem is in need of urgent attention, however, insufficient information is provided to societies, which therefore cease effective action (Brownridge, 2003, p.67). The scholarly articles’ (Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women 's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada and Male Partner Violence Against Aboriginal Women in Canada: An Empirical Analysis) focus is more specific to individuals such as university students, researchers, and those looking to seek more research-based information about this specific topic. The newspaper articles (AFN Chief Finds No Support from Premiers; Shawn Atleo Left Meeting with No Assurances to Help with Public Inquiry Into Violence Against Women and Canada Called On to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women) bring forth a general understanding of this issue, and attract the general public- those who have access to any form of media that may cover this issue (i.e. television, printing press resources). The language used in the scholarly articles compared to the newspaper articles is significant with regards to terminology, whereby the academic articles use language that many people may or may not comprehend. The newspaper articles differ in a sense that colloquial language is mainly used for the general public to understand the issue that is at large. The content of the academic articles are very dense, and much more informative in comparison to the newspaper articles. The use of information goes into depth about the violence against Aboriginal women, as well as contributes statistical facts about the issue. The newspaper articles give a general idea of what the issue is, supporting it by statements that are made by individuals primarily affected by the situation, and occasionally by a few statistics. The concept of violence against Aboriginal women is strongly undermined because of the content that is included in sources that everyone has access to. The ability to gain academic articles and research studies about Violence against aboriginal women are much more difficult than gaining access to a local newspaper, magazine or a television. The issue of violence against Aboriginal women is the common trait in these articles, however the significance in information is a strong factor that may contribute to the lack of knowledge that people may have about the issue; filtering out information that may be helpful in taking action towards preventing violence against Aboriginal women. In Douglas Brownridge’s 2003 article Male Partner Violence against Aboriginal Women in Canada, he hypothesizes that Aboriginal women have a higher chance of suffering from domestic violence with their male partner than other women in Canada, as well as more likely for this violence to prolong in comparison to other females in Canada. (p.65). The Native Women’s Association of Canada states that it is more likely for an individual to know more Aboriginal women that have been, or is still being abused by their partner, than for them to know an Aboriginal woman who is not (as cited in Brownridge, 2003, p.65). Because the Aboriginal population is vastly increasing, Brownridge suggests that the problem of violence will soon increase (p.67). Brownridge took an empirical approach to this issue to gain a better understanding of why it is exactly that Aboriginal women in Canada are more likely to experience violence with their male partners (p.67). In 1999, a total of 25, 876 individuals- men and women- who were 15 years of age or older were monitored while completing a telephone conversation about their victimization, not only from partner violence, but from other experiences as well (p.69). Only 7,396 were accounted for in this experiment (women who were heterosexual, married or common law at the time of the experiment) and 143 of the 7,396 were aboriginal women (p.70). After approaching the initial hypothesis with independent (age, residence, education) and dependent variables (type of violence against women), as well as analyzing different risk markers that initiate the violence, it was concluded that Aboriginal women were more prevalent in suffering from violence within a 5-year time frame in comparison to a non-Aboriginal woman (p.81). The articles concludes with the idea of colonization of Aboriginals in Canada played a large role in the initial act of violence again Aboriginal women and that the global nation need to address the issue, restore Aboriginal culture as well as working towards prevention of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada (p.81).