Barbara Martin

Aboriginal Women's Perspective

Good morning, I am glad to be addressing you at International Women's Day 1995. For me, everyday is International Women's Day.

I would like to leave here having celebrated a wonderful day for women and to pay tribute to aboriginal women at the same time. It would be easy to list all the woes that aboriginal women have to contend with surviving day to day, and I will certainly refer to them, but I will also take the opportunity to sing some praises to this amazing bunch of women.

A lot of faces and names came before me as I was writing this little speech. Images come to mind of these remarkable, beautiful women. I see them laughing, I see them tending a hurt child, I see them cradling a new born with such a look of tenderness and joy. I see them holding their heads in grief and crying as though their hearts have been broken to pieces. I see them staring down a soldier, a priest, an RCMP Officer, a social worker, a teacher, a chief, a husband or a boyfriend, and all those other frightening figures of authority that stand before her and her child/family. These women come from all over this province and from Canada. I grew up with them, worked with them and fought with them, and many are my friends. Too many have passed on to the other side and are no longer with us, but I will keep them in my memory and heart as though they are precious jewels.

I remember a white haired grandmother who had the spirit of a bear. A mother of nine children, all of whom she outlived and buried. They died of tuberculosis, the killing flu, drowning and alcoholism. She lived through two world wars and the great depression, and she saw many changes that would have our heads swimming. She lived to see all her grandchildren grow to adulthood. I remember how bewildered and angry she was that some of these grandchildren, and all of her great grandchildren could not understand her as she tried to speak to them of times gone by.

Another woman comes to mind. She is also a grandmother, though her hair has not gone all to white. Her face is like brown rock, and if you look real close you will sometimes see the twinkle in her eyes. As a little child, I remember her carrying in fifty pound bags of flour and potatoes, one on each shoulder. I thought she was the strongest woman in the world. Now she has pains if she works too hard, there is a slight stoop to those shoulders. When I look back and see what she had live through in her community - the betrayals, the little disappointments, the humiliations forced upon her to keep her family alive - I still think she is the strongest woman in the world.

I know a woman who I saw grow up from a little girl who tagged along with the teenage girls, trying to grow up too soon. They survived the holocaust, the detestation of sexual abuse and rape, alcoholism, drug addiction, family violence, and on and on it goes. How anyone survived the things that happened to them is a miracle in itself. That child grew up, she became a young mother. She left that hurt place for a while and took the devil by the horns and gave him a good kick. There is nothing in this world that this woman could not overcome, and I see her growing up to become the next generations elder. In time, I will see her go back, and with the help of those other women, clean house! And I will help them to the best of my ability.

I remember another woman, a more painful memory. A memory that I held in my mind's eye as a group of us aboriginal women organized to set up a transition house for aboriginal women. She had never been off the reserve, and in her bid for freedom from the abuse at home she found herself here in Fredericton. Only three hours by car from her home, but a million miles away in terms of the reality she was used to. She had the heart of a child and the courage of one of the old ones. She was hunted down and almost beaten to death by her brother, who almost succeeded in taking her eyes with a knife. She survived! I was honoured that she called me friend. Where ever she is now, I give her all my best wishes. All of theses women are my heroes.

I have spent the best part of these fifteen years working with aboriginal women from coast to coast. I met so many that I can't keep count. I can see their faces in the countless conferences I attended. There is always a battle to be fought, and it seemed the enemy was just as likely to be our husbands or leaders as they were the bureaucrats or politicians. Our battle fields tended to be either at the band administration building or at the house of parliament. Too often however, these battles tended to be against one another. We are not immune to the same squabbles that non aboriginal groups or other groups have to deal with. And there are as many different opinion about matters as there are women, except when it comes to our children and their future generations. There is no argument there, they are to be protected!

I won't go into any detail about the discriminatory sections of the Indian Act and the successive policies of assimilation and termination of rights by different governments, except to say that the fight did not end in 1985 when Bill C-31, an act to amend the Indian Act, was passed. The fight only changed focus. I would refer to "Enough is Enough: Aboriginal Women Speak Out", published by the Women's Press for the fight carried out by the Tobique Women's group. Whenever two or more aboriginal women, veterans of the fight get together, the laughter is loud and long. There has been some hard won gains, but not much. We can't take anything for granted because there is too much to lose if we stop fighting.

The work to heal our communities from the effects of colonization has been carried out so far by women of my generation and older. The age group you would refer to as baby boomers. We have to take up that work at the same time as we have undertaken our healing process. Our energies have stretched to accommodate those other issues that had to be on the back burner, but now require our undivided attentions. Family violence is the biggest issue in our communities. I can not say that it is on the increase, but it certainly has become acknowledged as the single most compelling issue that must be addressed at all levels. Housing shortages have become more of an issue now with the sudden increase in the aboriginal population, due to Bill C-31 reinstatements and a higher birth rate. Language and cultural retention is a high priority, with most of the communities recognizing that for all the fight for the inherent right of self government, it becomes a moot point when you no longer know who you are as a people.

Most aboriginal women in New Brunswick and Canada do not agree with self government as it is currently understood by both the bands and the federal government. Most of the models being passed around use the band council system as the basis of government. We know that if this is the case, then discrimination against women and children will be even more institutionalized then it is now. We have no reason to believe that the band councils in this province are sympathetic to the issues that aboriginal women hold dear. We have every reason to believe that unless there are more women in decision making roles, then band councils will continue to discriminate against women. This has been kept out of the public eye for so long that aboriginal women were mildly surprised when the abuses of some of the New Brunswick reserves came to light in the media this past year. We had ben after the media for so many years, about the extent of the discrimination against aboriginal women in the communities, that quite frankly many of us gave up on the popular media. Now it is not unusual to see some coverage of the chiefs' excesses. We welcome this as better late than never, but the question that comes to mind is, Why now?

I have been sounding a statistic for the past couple of years now that I am afraid I am beginning to sound foolish. But, I will sound it out again. According to Statistics Canada 1991 consensus, 59% of the aboriginal population is under the age of twenty five. What this means is that we have a baby boom of our own in progress. And one of such magnitude that it will change the face of aboriginal society. The current leadership only see this as important for the short term. Most leaders are now recognizing it as a factor to consider for getting back into power. This population will soon dominate, if they do not already, the voting patterns in the communities. No one, as I know, has yet examined what the issues of these youth are. Most aboriginal organizations, both on and off reserves, are still looking at many issues that the youth can not relate to. The older generation have become stuck in a pattern of thought and behaviours that our children are finding unacceptable, and with good reason. If we do not pay attention to the voices of the young, we will become irrelevant. The young can recognize hipocracy and betrayal when they see it, and I suspect they will not tolerate it as easily as their parents have. My generation needs to be the bridge, not the road block, between the massive number of youths that are here and coming and the elders who have become an alarming minority.

In addition to the resurgence of aboriginal culture and values that is sweeping the land, we will also see a renaissance in all streams and sectors of main stream society, driven by aboriginal people. The leadership that will spring from this generation will be more often than not, young aboriginal women. I give fair warning to the leadership of both bands and the leaders of the province, who do not understand or seem to care about this reality judging by some of the unfortunate remarks about aboriginal women. I tell you, Watch Out! Our children are coming!

I celebrate International Women's Day with a great deal of pride and love for all my heroines out there, still surviving and striving against odds that would have broken, and did indeed break strong men. In closing, I give thanks to the creator for all the lessons and guidance given to us. I ask that she be there today for every woman on the face of this earth, to give a special blessing to each and everyone. We share much with our mother earth, and I ask that she be healed and made whole again. Women know and understand the pain that she is in, because we are the earth and she is us. For those aboriginal women who have passed on, having fought the good fight so that the future generations will live, we will remember you and honour your memory. Thank you.

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© 2007 Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University