Editorial

Remembering the ongoing genocide and oppression of Indigenous and Afghani women

ANDREA SADOWSKI

September 30 was declared a federal statutory holiday as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in June. This signifies a small bit of progress made on the 94 Calls to Action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. Once known as Orange Shirt Day, September 30 marks a day of awareness and recognition, a day “to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

The European colonization of the Americas was the result of a mass genocide of Indigenous populations. Some may find it easy to brush this off as something that happened 500 years ago, and there is nothing we can do about the past. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, was the first person to coin the term “genocide” in 1933. Lemkin explained that:

“Genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation … It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.”

The very formation of Canada as a nation was built on a foundation of genocide and the removal of Indigenous peoples from their land. The federal government was actively commited to enacting genocide on the Indigenous population through the residential school system that was designed to “kill the Indian in the child.” John A. MacDonald authorized the creation of residential schools in 1883, which would be administered by the church. This program removed approximately 150,000 children from their homes and caused the deaths of upwards of 4,100 children, until the last residential school closed in 1996. This is not part of our distant past; this happened in our lifetime.

In May, we collectively mourned as a ground-penetrating radar device discovered the bodies of 215 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Kisha Supernant, an anthropologist and director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology in Edmonton, told CTV news that we can expect more unmarked graves around residential schools in Canada.

The genocide against Indigenous women in Canada is still occuring today. The high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women is one of the greatest human rights abuses Canada has ever seen. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls declared the exorbitant rate of Indigenous female homicides and unresolved missing Indigenous females to be an ongoing genocide against Indigenous women in Canada. Indigenous women are more likely to have their children placed into foster care, be sexually assaulted, incarcerated, sterilized, and die from unnatural causes like drug toxicity and homicide than any other demographic in Canada.

Federal legislation and policies are aimed at wearing down communities and targeting Indigenous women and TwoSpirit people, the carriers of their culture. While Canada continues to systematically oppress and eliminate Indigenous women from their lands and decimate their nations, Afghanistan’s new military regime has similarly pushed women back into their homes and left them fearing for their lives.

The Taliban officially seized control of Afghanistan on August 15 of this year. In the wake of this military coup that led Afghani president Ashraf Ghani to flee and the U.S. military to withdraw, women were urged to stay in their homes. In the past, the Taliban have not allowed women to work outside the home, barring them from attending university or even leaving the house without constant male observation. Zabihullah Mujahid, an official Taliban spokesman, assured the public in a news conference that things will be different this time around. Brian Castner, senior crisis advisor at Amnesty International, told the New York Times that “there is no indication that the Taliban intend to fulfill that or any other promises of moderation.” This proved to be true when members of the Taliban dismantled a women’s protest in Kabul with whips and sticks.

We mourn with Afghan women whose dreams are being shattered in the wake of the Taliban’s rule as we mourn with Indigenous girls and women who are continually stripped of their homes, children, land, and very lives. Amnesty International and Kairos Canada both have informative guides on actions you can take to help end the violence against Indigenous girls and women, including writing a letter to your local MPs, signing a petition, or hosting an event. If you have it within your means, consider donating to organizations that are helping women on the ground in Afghanistan, such as the Preemptive Love Coalition. You could also volunteer with an organization that resettles refugees, like Archway Community Services and Mission Community Services Society.

Illustration by Brielle Quon