The Indigenous People’s Power Project
According to Smith et al., (2018), Indigenous people’s projects have been subsequently working towards the development of the social condition of Indigenous communities across Canada and globally. This project aims to analyse the various components of indigenous research by tracing the factual data and information in two different parts. Part A of the report comprises an analysis of the importance of Indigenous people’s project and transformation of the research methodologies and Part B provides a critical discussion on a journal about Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
Importance of an Indigenous people’s project and assessment of the reason for which the land-based and Indigenous languages can transformation of agenda for Indigenous social work research methodologies
The Indigenous People’s Power Project or (IP3) is regarded to be a non-profit 501c3, which is responsible for directing the required training and actions to support the advancement of the indigenous communities in inheriting equal rights to cultural livelihood, self-determination and environmental justice. The three groups that are defined as the Aboriginal people of Canada within the Constitution act,1982, Section 35(2) are, First Nations or the North American Indians, Inuk or Inuit and Métis (Tshabangu & Salawu, 2021). The research agendas have been noticed to be connecting the regional, global and local efforts of the ideas that are directed towards the development of the Indigenous communities through self-determination. According to Burow et al., (2018), the communities predominantly differ in the positions with distinct categories which are known to dominate the positional leadership in community governance are the indigenous elites who have been residents for years and played an active role in communal leadership. Second one is professional elites who hold a higher position in educational and economic status. Land-centred concepts are regarded to be one of the fundamental assets that are important for increasing the self-determination of the indigenous communities considering the need for fighting for cultural property rights. As suggested by Corntassel & Hardbarger (2019), the shattering and dissolving the global strategic alliances with the First Nations due to the fickleness within the partners. The lack of sincerity in maintaining the alliance with the indigenous communities directs the agenda of the social work towards recovery and healing of the deep wounds caused to these communities over time. Colonization can be considered one of the essential reasons that led to the forced dispersal of several native communities from the traditional lands. The hit of globalization at present has increased the international mobilization of the rural indigenous settlements in search of better economic opportunities. Habitat fragmentation caused by the constant exploitation of natural resources has pushed large sections of the indigenous communities into isolation (Koot et al., 2019).
Following the idea of Agenda for Indigenous Research stated by Linda Smith, it can be observed that the agenda can be considered to be a concept that constitutes programs and approaches within decolonization politics related to the Indigenous people’s movement (Smith et al., 2018). The research agenda is mostly directed towards indigenization of the knowledge systems involving the process of mobilization, transformation, decolonization and healing as humans. As opined by Fa et al., (2020), intellectual property rights denote the patent and secret laws of the indigenous communities. The relationship with the traditional land is evaluated to be a deeper emotional concept of the aboriginal people due to the profound spiritual connection shared with the lands. The indigenous storytelling on the storied landscapes is regarded as a functional process of sharing knowledge about the sacrificial ceremonies to connect the souls to the earth amongst several indigenous cultures. According to Garnett et al., (2018), the distortion of the native cultures due to the impact of imperialism over the years has resulted in the diminishing of stories about the native civilizations. The modern solution of the Indigenous people’s movements thoroughly works for reconciliation of the people with the traditional culture through meaningful developmental activities like cultural camps. As suggested by Sangha et al., (2018), the primitive aboriginal languages such as the Anishinaabemowin or the Ojibwe/Ojibwa language entails a strong connection to the Great Lake regions of Canada. The nature of the shared gender relationships plays a major role in defining the ability to achieve good health and quality of life. Anishinaabekwe or the women of the indigenous communities are considered responsible for handling the domestic sphere to produce new lives and become caretakers of the family. Lack of proper sanitation and healthcare facilities like medicines leads to several diseases like HIV, AIDS, especially in the rural areas. Inclusion of indigenous apprenticeship into the service sectors commemorates high chances of improving the conditions of Indigenous communities (Rosen & Nofziger, 2019).
Summarizing the primary goal of a report on Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and discussing its implications for social justice and an Indigenous social work research agenda.
Regional, Global and Local Efforts for Indigenous Development
The selected report on Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) is the news release on the conducted National Inquiry to determine transformative changes effective in eradicating violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA (Gatineau, 2019). The primary goals of the report are to reveal a final report on the persistent and deliberate violations against indigenous rights and reveal the root reason behind lowering rate of security against abuses faced by girls, women and 2SLGBTQQIA communities. It has been noticed through the revelation of factual data and statements in the report that more than 231 individuals have pled for justice and help from the government, social service providers, Canadians and industries (Gatineau, 2019). The report states that regardless of different circumstances and social backgrounds, the primary reason behind all the missing cases are assumed to deliberately result from intentional practices like socio-political marginalization, racism, misogynist and economic weakness. Quebec, Manitoba, Nunavut can be regarded as amongst the leading provinces in terms of abuses conducted on indigenous women. According to Lucchesi (2019), the recent data from the national Crime Information Centre states that around 5,295 missing cases were reported for American Indian girls in 2020. The collected data revealed by Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) systems that till November 2013 around 164 aboriginal women were found missing on a conducted survey of total missing women in Canada in 30 days.
Digging further in the history of reported violent crimes, it can be seen that in the period between 1980 to 2012, around 1,017 indigenous females were victims of homicide who represented 16% of total the total case. The cases, however, have been consecutively differing across various regions in Canada. According to Moeke-Pickering et al., (2018), the implication of social justice and the research agenda of the Indigenous social workers towards protecting women against violent acts are based on poverty and cultural bias. The symbolism of the red hand over a girl’s mouth denoting the silence of the media and law enforcement for the subjugation and oppression of native women shows the protest conducted by the growing Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. The agenda of the social movements are severely focused on dismissing the negative stereotypes that subsequently hinder the search process in case of reported missing women cases.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the social movements related to the projects started for the betterment of the Indigenous people’s projects have been observed to have unleashed a significant impact on the societal conditions of countries across the world. The sudden burst of the energies through the increase in the development of different activities and programs to identify the suffering and societal conditions of the indigenous people are focused on engaging the ethnocultural communities within the various research agendas. The movements and protests of the various Indigenous social workers towards eradicating the cultural differences and violence against the native communities.
References
Burow, P. B., Brock, S., & Dove, M. R. (2018). Unsettling the land: indigeneity, ontology, and hybridity in settler colonialism. Environment and Society, 9(1), 57-74. doi:10.3167/ares.2018.090105
Corntassel, J., & Hardbarger, T. (2019). Educate to perpetuate: Land-based pedagogies and community resurgence. International review of education, 65(1), 87-116. DOI 10.1007/s11159-018-9759-1
Fa, J. E., Watson, J. E., Leiper, I., Potapov, P., Evans, T. D., Burgess, N. D., … & Garnett, S. T. (2020). Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18(3), 135-140. Doi:10.1002/fee.2148
Garnett, S. T., Burgess, N. D., Fa, J. E., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Molnár, Z., Robinson, C. J., … & Leiper, I. (2018). A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. Nature Sustainability, 1(7), 369-374. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0100-6
Gatineau, QC., 2019. National Inquiry calls for transformative change to eradicate violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/News-Release-Final-Report.pdf> [Accessed 11 January 2022].
Koot, S., Hitchcock, R., & Gressier, C. (2019). Belonging, indigeneity, land and nature in Southern Africa under neoliberal capitalism: An overview. Journal of Southern African Studies, 45(2), 341-355. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2019.1610243
Lucchesi, A. H. E. (2019). Mapping geographies of Canadian colonial occupation: pathway analysis of murdered indigenous women and girls. Gender, Place & Culture, 26(6), 868-887. DOI: 10.18584/iipj.2019.10.1.2
Moeke-Pickering, T., Cote-Meek, S., & Pegoraro, A. (2018). Understanding the ways missing and murdered Indigenous women are framed and handled by social media users. Media International Australia, 169(1), 54-64. s DOI: 10.1177/1329878X18803730
Rosen, N. L., & Nofziger, S. (2019). Boys, bullying, and gender roles: How hegemonic masculinity shapes bullying behaviour. Gender Issues, 36(3), 295-318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-018-9226-0
Sangha, K. K., Preece, L., Villarreal-Rosas, J., Kegamba, J. J., Paudyal, K., Warmenhoven, T., & RamaKrishnan, P. S. (2018). An ecosystem services framework to evaluate Indigenous and local peoples’ connections with nature. Ecosystem services, 31, 111-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.03.017
Smith, L. T., Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (Eds.). (2018). Indigenous and decolonizing studies in education: Mapping the long view. Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-138-58586-7 (pbk)
Tshabangu, T., & Salawu, A. (2021). Indigenous-language Media Research in Africa: Gains, Losses, Towards a New Research Agenda. African Journalism Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2021.1998787
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