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Upcoming National Aborginal Women’s Summit too exclusive, say organizations
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak. (FILE PHOTO)
The inaugural National Day of Action to address missing and murdered Manitoba women was not without ceremony – or controversy.
Just prior to the start of a series of forums and public awareness initiatives across Winnipeg today – organized by the newly established Coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women – three major aboriginal organizations in Manitoba denounced an upcoming national summit on the issue as "exclusive".
Representatives of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and the Southern Chiefs Organization said the National Aborginal Women’s Summit III, to be held in Winnipeg on Nov. 1-2, threatens to be too academically and agency focused to deal with a street-level issue that requires grassroots-orientated solutions.
Further, while murdered and missing aboriginal women is as nation-wide dilemma, statistics from the Native Women’s Association of Canada paint an even more stark situation in Manitoba, where 81 per cent of murder cases involve First Nations or other indigenous women and girls (versus 61 per cent nationally). Almost half of the unsolved murder cases in Manitoba (45 per cent) involve First Nations or other indigenous women (compared to 39 per cent nationally).
Sixty-four per cent of those murder cases occurred in Winnipeg, also higher than the urban average of 58 per cent, according to NWAC statistics.
"This issue is happening on the ground, in the streets of Winnipeg," AMC grand chief Derek Nepinak told the Free Press today. "It’s like they’re (provincial summit organizers) are sitting at the board room at 30,000 feet and trying to parachute solutions in.
"We believe that the solutions exist in the communities, not from closed boardrooms."
The National Day of Action, along with similar events held across Canada today, included a sunrise ceremony at The Forks, a postcard initiative to demand the federal Harper government launch a national inquiry into missing and murdered women, and several forums ranging from gang violence to the long-term effects of flooding First Nations land. Each of the subjects all have ties to the systemic issues at the root of the missing women problem, said Kathy Harper, the AMC’s community liaison and researcher said.
History
Updated on Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 3:32 PM CDT: corrects typo in headline, adds photo
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