The UN’s sustainable development goal 5 in Indigenous populations of Canada: missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada and the history of colonial gendered violence

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the intersection of mechanisms of oppression that act on the gendered experiences of indigenous women in British Columbia, and how they overexpose them to dynamics of violence and exploitation at the hands of a system that still perpetuates inherited colonial dynamics throughout its legal and political mechanisms and institutions. The dissertation adopts a multidisciplinary approach. It draws from legal scholarship, sociological studies and geography to understand systems in place regulating and shaping Indigenous identity and communities in Canada. The main proposition is that the oppression systems that currently act on indigenous women and perpetuate their exposure to violence have been instituted throughout history by the domination of colonial cultural modes of thinking over the indigenous traditions and practices, leading to continuous disenfranchisement and violence performed on women. The crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women is studied through this historical lens. Cases of MMIWG constitute an example of present violence and discrimination perpetuated against Indigenous women, and through them the impact of colonization becomes evident. To frame the cases of MMIWG, the dissertation also explores the present realities surrounding Indigenous women and communities which overexpose them to instances of victimization and abuse.