Women and the Law

"Indigenous women continue to be overrepresented in Canadian prisons; research demonstrates how their overincarceration and often extensive experiences of victimization are interconnected with and through ongoing processes of colonization. Implicating the System: Judicial Discourses in the Sentencing of Indigenous Women explores how judges navigate these issues in sentencing by examining related discourses in selected judgments from a review of 175 decisions.

"In traditional Aboriginal societies, women were the equal of men and were entitled to be treated with respect. In fact, in Aboriginal matriarchal societies, women were the ultimate holders of political and social power, with responsibilities expressed in teachings handed down from mother to daughter. One of the saddest influences of the years of contact between Aboriginal and European people in North America has been the denigration of the status of women in Aboriginal societies, as a result of or in conjunction with assaults that occurred against aboriginal cultures generally.

"First published in 1993, First Nations: Race, Class, and Gender Relations remains unique in offering systematically, from a political economy perspective, an analysis that enables us to understand the diverse realities of Aboriginal people within changing Canadian and global contexts. The book provides an extended analysis of how changing social dynamics, organized particularly around race, class, and gender relations, have shaped the life chances and conditions for Aboriginal people within the structure of Canadian society and its major institutional forms.

"From Ellen Gabriel to Tantoo Cardinal, many of the faces of Aboriginal people in the media today are women. In the Days of Our Grandmothers is a collection of essays detailing how Aboriginal women have found their voice in Canadian society over the past three centuries. Collected in one volume for the first time, these essays critically situate Aboriginal women in the fur trade, missions, labour and the economy, the law, sexuality, and the politics of representation.

"An emotionally moving and upbeat program that gives voice to some of our finest Canadian Aboriginal women. Historical segments in the program contrast the traditional equality of power, male to female within native communities, versus the regression in the roles and power of First Nations women in Canada under European dominance. We hear the voices of strong women "leaders" on how they view the rebuilding of balanced self-government within their community in the future. The Indian Act and Bill C31 are examined to highlight their effect on First Nations women.

"Contact Zones locates Canadian women's history within colonial and imperial systems. As both colonizer and colonized (sometimes even simultaneously), women were uniquely positioned at the axis of the colonial encounter - the so-called "contact zone" - between Aboriginals and newcomers. Some women were able to transgress the bounds of social expectation, while others reluctantly conformed to them. Aboriginal women such as E. Pauline Johnson, Bernice Loft, and Ethel Brant Monture shaped identities for themselves in both worlds.

"Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this dramatic film features a young Ojibwa girl from 1770 who marries a Scottish fur trader and leaves home for the shores of Georgian Bay. Although the union is beneficial for her tribe, it results in hardship and isolation for Ikwe. Values and customs clash until, finally, the events of a dream Ikwe once had unfold with tragic clarity." -- Provided by publisher

"The majority of scholarly and activist opinion by and about Aboriginal women claims that feminism is irrelevant for them. Yet, there is also an articulate, theoretically informed and activist constituency that identifies as feminist. By and about Aboriginal feminists, this book provides a powerful and original intellectual and political contribution demonstrating that feminism has much to offer Aboriginal women in their struggles against oppression. The contributors are from Canada, the USA, Sapmi (Samiland) and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

An intimate portrait of a fiercely determined survivor, Donna's Story profiles a Cree woman who left behind a bleak existence on the streets. She has re-emerged as a powerful voice counselling Aboriginal adults and youth about abuse and addiction. Donna Gamble was raised in foster homes, addicted to drugs and caught up in prostitution by the age of 13. The camera unravels her exhilarating and tumultuous journey: her motivation to turn her life around, her work to keep others off the streets and the renewal of personal relationships with her family and children.

"A general introduction to the social and legal issues involved in acts of violence against Native women, this book's contributors are lawyers, social workers, social scientists, writers, poets, and victims. In the U.S. Native women are more likely than women from any other group to suffer violence, from rape and battery to more subtle forms of abuse, and Sharing Our Stories of Survival explores the causes and consequences of such behavior.