With the memory of Daleen Bosse still fresh in her memory, assistant professor of Social Work at the First Nations University of Canada Sharon Acoose worries about the trend of violence against First Nations women in Canada that is killing so many people.THE NIPAWIN JOURNAL
Tyler Clarke/Journal Staff
Wednesday August 20, 2008
With the memory of Daleen Bosse still fresh in her memory, assistant professor of Social Work at the First Nations University of Canada Sharon Acoose worries about the trend of violence against First Nations women in Canada that is killing so many people.
"She was a very good student and very passionate," Acoose said of Bosse, whom she met while they both attended the Saskatchewan Indian Federation College, now the First Nations University of Canada. Acoose also grew up with one of the women related to the Robert Pickton serial killing.
"When you know them it really hurts," she said.
According to a report by Statistics Canada, Aboriginal women are three to five times more likely than other women to die as a result of violence. Amnesty International campaigner Craig Benjamin said this pattern is directly related to racism, and the historically racist attitude of the Canadian government. Through the denial of status to Aboriginal women, the Aboriginal scoop, wherein First Nations children were taken in great numbers into the government's social services programs, and the residential school system, First Nations people have been marginalized.
On the Daleen Bosse case, Benjamin said that Bosse was treated as just another First Nations runaway, and that police forces assumed she left on her own accord, and would return on her own, like most runaways.
"My recollection is the family reported that intensive search for evidence was delayed too long," Benjamin said. According to the Amnesty International website, although Bosse's vehicle was found June 4 2004, a forensic examination was not carried out until April 2005.
With regards to the failure of police to act on disappearing First Nations women, Benjamin said "there are some men who have taken advantage of that," which helps explain the higher numbers of violence against First Nations women than others.
Acoose, who worked the streets as a prostitute a lot earlier in her life, has similar accounts of police inactivity.
"They are inactive because they just don't care," she firmly said.
Acoose said she was raped while working as a prostitute. When she went to the police to report the rape, the impression she said they gave her was that she was a prostitute, and as such deserved to be raped.
When her brother was shot, Acoose said police responded with the same level of apathy.
Acoose recognizes some police officers tried their best to help, specifically with the Bosse case. Regardless, she said more officers need to begin caring.
Racism underlies all these issues, according to director of Indian Social Work at the First Nations University of Canada Yvonne Howse, and education has a lot to do with it.
"Look at the high school, how many deal with First Nations people, and how many in elementary and high schools, universities. Not very much," Howse said.
"It's the attitude of the country that First Nations have been treated like second-class people in their own country."
She said the fact that history is not being taught from First Nations perspectives helps foster this Euro-dominated mindset.
General racism, such as friends getting together and making racist comments, is an offshoot of this, which results in a much larger problem problem.
"Comments are made of wagon burners or other obscene names… How many people will hold each other accountable?" Not until it's unacceptable will people hold each other accountable, she said.
Howse said a recent example of this was the 2001 rape of a 12 year old First Nations girl in the Tisdale area, which Howse attended court for. She said she attended court because she "felt that young lady needed support and that people believe her."
On Sept. 30, 2001, it is alleged that three men picked up a 12 year old girl on the stops of a bar, gave her beer in their truck, and brought her into their truck. During the trail all but one of the three suspects were acquitted, a verdict Howse and many others disagreed with.
"I believe [the trail] should have never been over there, maybe in the city of Saskatoon," Howse said, as a lot of the people in the court proceedings knew each other. "Who knows what happened, but I think [the three suspects] should have been found guilty… I believe her."
Amnesty International's Craig Benjamin said that images of racism towards First Nations people are still prevalent in mainstream North American society. A video game from the early 80s called Custer's Revenge requires the player of the game to make their character rape a First Nations woman. This kind of thing, Benjamin said, is central to the dehumanization of First Nations women.
"Women's bodies are often a central part of that dehumanization," he said, adding that rape has long been a weapon of war, in that it humiliates the victim and makes the guilty party feel morally superior.
"Sexual abuse against Aboriginal women has a long history in our country… It's part of a much larger pattern."
"Racism is a horrible repressive behaviour, but it exists," Howse said. "There's no quick answer."
Saskatchewan Aboriginal Women's Circle Corporation president Judy Hughes said that some progress has been made with regards to awareness and understanding of First Nations culture, though a lot of work still has to be done.
"A lot of us experience [racism] on a daily basis… Racism seems to be fairly commonplace in Saskatchewan," she said, adding it's frequently the case that First Nations people are denied jobs by employers, and rental homes by landowners, based on their race.
Daleen Kay Bosse, 25 at the time of her disappearance, was a member of the Lloydminster-area Onion Lake First Nation. She was also an education student at the University of Saskatchewan with aspirations to become a teacher, as well as being a mother and wife. Douglas R. Hales, 30, of White Fox has been charged with her murder and offering an indignity to a body.
The Native Women's Association of Canada estimates that about 500 Native women have gone missing in the last 30 years in Canada, most of whom are still unaccounted for.
The Women's Circle Corporation, which serves all of Saskatchewan and helps First Nations women in various areas such as education, can be contacted at (306) 983-1228 or by e-mail at sawcc@hotmail.com
© 2008 Nipawin Journal
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