Demeter Press is honoured to announce the official publication of Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada.
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The hidden crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada is both a national tragedy and a national shame. In this ground-breaking new volume, as part of their larger efforts to draw attention to the shockingly high rates of violence against our sisters, Jennifer Brant and D. Memee Lavell-Harvard have pulled together a variety of voices from the academic realms to the grassroots and front-lines to speak on what has been identified by both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations as a grave violation of the basic human rights of Aboriginal women and girls. Linking colonial practices with genocide, through their exploration of the current statistics, root causes and structural components of the issue, including conversations on policing, media and education, the contributing authors illustrate the resilience, strength, courage, and spirit of Indigenous women and girls as they struggle to survive in a society shaped by racism and sexism, patriarchy and misogyny. This book was created to honour our missing sisters, their families, their lives and their stories, with the hope that it will offer lessons to non-Indigenous allies and supporters so that we can all work together towards a nation that supports and promotes the safety and well-being of all First Nation, Métis and Inuit women and girls.
“Heart wrenching and enlightening at the same time, this book debunks many of the myths that have perpetuated and excused the appalling levels of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada. The authors challenge conventional thinking on the nature of so-called ‘high-risk lifestyles,’ emphasizing the legacy of oppression and the abuse of Indigenous peoples as they make the connection between the history of colonization and genocide and our contemporary experiences of racialized, sexualized violence.”
-Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Past President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada
“Tremendously informative work on one of the most pressing issues in Canada today. For those seeking answers on how to address the deplorable situation of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, they are here.”
-Kim Anderson, Associate Professor, Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Wilfrid Laurier University
“Too many lives have been stolen and too many communities have been destroyed by violence. This volume is both timely and, of course, long overdue. Just as silence and invisibility have allowed the violence to continue, by shining a light on the crisis and bringing awareness to this important issue this collection makes an important contribution towards improving the lives of Indigenous women and girls.”
-National Chief Dwight Dorey, Indigenous Peoples Assembly of Canada
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Forever Loved
D. Memee Lavell-Harvard and Jennifer Brant
I. Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls:
A Sociological Phenomenon
Stolen Sisters: The Politics, Policies, and Travesty of
Missing and Murdered Women in Canada
Wendee Kubik and Carrie Bourassa
Understanding Violence against Indigenous
Women and Girls in Canada
Jessica Riel-Johns
.
“Only the Silence Remains”:
Aboriginal Women as Victims in the Case of the
Lower Eastside (Pickton) Murders, Investigative Flaws,
and the Aftermath of Violence in Vancouver
Patricia O’Reilly and Thomas Fleming
Sisters in Spirit
Anita Olsen Harper
II. The Ongoing Erasure of Indigenous Women
The Unmournable Body of Cindy Gladue:
On Corporeal Integrity and Grievability
Caroline Fidan Tyler Doenmez
Analyzing Erasures and Resistance Involving
Indigenous Women in New Brunswick, Canada
Josephine L. Savarese
The Duty of the Canadian Media in Relation to the
Violence against Native Women:
Lessons Drawn from the Case of Ciudad Juárez.
Isela Pérez-Torres
III. Education, Awareness, and Action
Transnational Advocacy for the
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Rosemary Nagy
How the Lens of the Global Locates Canada’s Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women:
Pedagogical Methods, Lessons, and
Hope from the Classroom
Brenda Anderson
Honouring “Our Sisters in Spirit”:
An Interview with Film Director Nick Printup
Jennifer Brant and Nick Printup
IV. Taking a Stance: Resistance and Sisterhood
Sisterhood on the Frontlines:
The Truth As We Hear It from Indigenous Women
Summer Rain Bentham, Hilla Kerner, and Lisa Steacy,
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter
Visualizing Grassroots Justice:
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Vicki Chartrand, Myrna Abraham, Leah Maureen Gazan,
Cheryl James, Brenda Osborne, and Chickadee Richard
Personal Political Pedagogy with Respect to #mmiw
Maxine Matilpi
V. Voices of Healing: Narrative and Poetry
Little Sister
Tasha Spillet
She, Remembers, Warrior
Tasha Spillett
What I Learned from Walking With Our Sisters
Gillian McKee
To My Sister I Have Never Met
Sherry Emmerson
If One More
Sākihitowin Awāsis
Take Back the Night
Sākihitowin Awāsis
Accomplice
Alyssa M. General
Moving Forward:
A Dialogue between D. Memee Lavell-Harvard,
Gladys Radek, and Bernice Williams
D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, Gladys Radek,
and Bernice Williams
About the Contributors
