The E-PANA Division: The Struggle For Indigenous Women

In 2014, Indigenous women groups indicated that 4,000 Indigenous women were missing between 1980 and 2012 (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2017). Additional reports made in 2009 state that 67,000 indigenous women aged 15 years of age or older had been violently victimized (Monchalin, 2016). Although these numbers are already elevated, they are expected to continue to rise, this is due to the fact that the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women are due to various problems/factors, all of which are entrenched in colonialism. The roots of these colonialist ideologies date back to the initial arrival of the Europeans and how they treated Indigenous women. Today, colonialism is reiterated through the media portrayal and discussion of Indigenous …show more content…
An example of this is the creation of the E-PANA division. Although, it has been estimated that "over six hundred aboriginal women have been reported missing and/or murdered" the E-PANA division has its focus on a mere eighteen cases (Pope C. & Smiley M., 2015). This conveys the message that it is not vital to investigate the other cases of missing and/or murdered Indigenous women despite the fact that most Non-indigenous cases receive the due attention of police and other government agencies. This perpetuates the colonialist idea that Indigenous individuals are of less worth than Non-Indigenous individuals. Some of the reasons Indigenous women are at high risk along the Highway of Tears is because they are placed in a vulnerable situation due to systemic and socioeconomic dilemmas forced upon them by the government. The Indigenous individuals that must travel along this highway lack the education on the dangers of hitchhiking, the protection needed, the money to purchase vehicles as well as, the necessary transportation, such as busses, to get them safely from one point to another. Recommendations have been proposed to the government as a means of finding solutions to these issues. However, the government has not sponsored the necessary amount of funds to make it possible (Pope C. & Smiley M., 2015). In addition to these problems that are not adequately managed by the government within their communities, there is a significant amount of violence against women because of colonialism. Residential schools taught young boys to solve their problems through violence as opposed to the traditional ways of the Indigenous cultures that focus more on healing and reparation (Pope C. & Smiley M., 2015). Due to the violent ways taught in residential school, these ideas reveal themselves in Indigenous communities as violence against