[Content Warning: Contains references to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQI+ People. Please seek support if directly affected or needing local mental health supports.]
As I wrote in a previous post, “green living” in Ottawa—unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory—has to include recognizing Canada’s basis in settler colonialism that continues to separate Indigenous people from their lands. It also entails taking responsibility to listen to, learn from and support local Indigenous-led actions (e.g. protecting the Ottawa River).
One of the ways that Canada has continued to perpetuate harms against Indigenous peoples is through tolerating and enabling violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, as documented by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The Inquiry’s final report confirms what Indigenous people have long asserted: the existence of “race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, which especially targets women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people,” which “has been empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools, and breaches of human and Inuit, Métis and First Nations rights.”
Locally, the grassroots group Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS) has been working for decades to raise awareness and catalyze action to prevent further disappearances and deaths, support families who have lost loved ones, and call for action. For example, last September 18, FSIS and others organized a moving and powerful Search the Landfills International Day of Action rally—one of many across the country—on Parliament Hill, in solidarity with the families of three Indigenous women whose bodies are thought to be in landfills outside Winnipeg. The Canadian and Manitoba governments have expressed support, but have yet to act.
This Friday, March 8, 2024, FSIS is organizing another International Search the Landfill gathering on Parliament Hill, from 11:30am-1:00pm. Please support the event, which coincides with International Women’s Day 2024, if you can. Find out more about the issues in the National Inquiry’s Final Report and Calls for Justice; and in this 2023 “report card” on the lack of progress in implementing those Calls.
Green Living Ottawa 