The small room rang with the sounds of synchronous drumbeats.  Eight women in a range of ages hit the large drum while their voices cried out the “Warrior Song.”  Young girls took their turns at leading the song, their voices rising above the beat.  These women are the future of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows, Ontario).

Community members, including the October CPT delegation to Kenora/Grassy Narrows, gathered on the evening of 4 October 2010 to remember the lives of 582 Aboriginal women. The Native Woman's Association of Canada's Sisters in Spirit (SIS) initiative had set aside this day to honour women who have disappeared or been murdered in Canada over the last twenty years. 

This degree of violence directed against indigenous women is way out of proportion to their representation (3 %) in the Canadian population. 

SIS says that several factors that contribute to this violence:

• Until 1985, an indigenous woman who married a non-indigenous person lost her status as “Indian” as well as their right to live on reserve and to access other services.  This led to cultural isolation.
• Residential schools resulted in a cycle of trauma and abuse that continues today.
• Government policies in the 1960s allowed indigenous children to be removed from their communities and to be placed in non-indigenous homes.  Again, this resulted in break-up of families, loss of cultural identity and, often, trauma and abuse.

Because of this culture of delegitimization, some men have accurately assumed they can get away with racialized and sexualized violence against the women. In October 2004, Amnesty International released Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence against Indigenous Women in Canada .  In their findings, they noted the following:

• According to a Canadian government statistic, young Native women are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as the result of violence.
• Studies suggest that assaults against Indigenous women are not only more frequent; they are also often particularly brutal.
• In only 53% of the cases involving Native women was someone charged, whereas the average rate for homicide charges among Canada’s general population is 84%

The report brought the issue to the attention of the Canadian government and the media, but they continue to be unresponsive.  Native women’s organisations are asking for all levels of government to develop a comprehensive program to stop this violence.

But on 4 October in Kenora, Ontario there were small signs that at the grassroots change is happening.  The community was gathered for the fifth year and the group was the largest yet.  In addition to the women, men were there as allies to remember the lost ones, and to call for an end to the violence.  And the young women were there.  Judy da Silva, the leader of Grassy Narrows Women s Drum Group said, “I do not tell my daughters to shut up.  I want them to grow up with strong voices.  I don’t want them to be silenced.”  As these young women sang out clearly, older women from the audience came up quietly to stand behind them to support them in their song.