The Missing Indigenous Women Canada Refuses to See | The Walrus

"T wo things are true about Indigenous girls, women, and gender-diverse people in Canada. First, as Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson notes, they "reproduce and amplify" Indigeneity, the definitive characteristics of Indigenous peoples and culture, diverse as they are. Second, she writes, it is this quality that has made them targets of violence in a country that seeks to eradicate Indigeneity."

"These truths have especially been on full display in Manitoba since 2022. Following the discovery of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation member Rebecca Contois's remains in a garbage bin outside a Winnipeg apartment complex, at least three more Indigenous women were thought to be in a landfill north of the city. Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris of Long Plain First Nation and Ashlee Shingoose from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation, like Contois, were all described in news reports as vulnerable and street involved."

"The women's families and communities pleaded with officials to conduct a search-cries for justice which police and provincial leadership countered with tuts of fiscal feasibility. The tension spilled into the provincial election when the Progressive Conservative campaign claimed there were exorbitant financial and safety costs associated with the search. This debate whether Indigenous mothers were worth retrieving from piles of waste reveals where gender and reconciliation intersect."

Indigenous girls, women, and gender-diverse people reproduce and amplify Indigeneity and have been targeted with violence connected to efforts to eradicate Indigenous presence. Since 2022 in Manitoba, remains of Rebecca Contois were found and at least three more Indigenous women were suspected to be in a landfill north of Winnipeg. The victims included Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, and Ashlee Shingoose, who were described as vulnerable, street-involved, and mothers. A convicted serial killer targeted vulnerable Indigenous women by frequenting homeless shelters. Families and communities pleaded for searches while officials cited fiscal and safety concerns, exposing political indifference and contradictions in proclaimed feminist commitments.

Read at The Walrus