Definitions
The Indian Problem
The term was used to refer to the fact that Indigenous people have refused to give up their treaty rights/sovereignty
60s Scoop
Came at the phasing out of residential schools, child welfare workers removed Indigenous children from their homes and placed in non-Indigenous foster and adoptive parents. Continued assimilationist agenda under the guise of “best interests”
MMIWG2S Crisis
Part of a broader landscape of gender-based violence against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people that has continued since the start of colonization.
The Pass System
Barring Indigenous people from leaving reserves without written permission.
Reconciliation
The restoration of friendly relations & the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.
Legal Femicide
Forcing nations to select men to replace matriarchs because the Crown refused to work with women, recognizing only male chiefs under the Indian Act and allowing only men to vote until 1951, and dictating patrilineal recognition of Indian status (until the 1980s), alongside colonial legislation being enacted to control how women were able to access, inherit, or own land or property.
The Potlatch Ban
A ban on engaging in potlatch ceremonies, initially implemented in the west until spreading across Canada - became the criminalization of Indigenous cultural practices, music, regalia, ceremony, and language.
Social Determinants of Health
Are environmental causes of ill health that affect populations. They point to evidence that highlights higher susceptibility to illness and disease as a product of particular socioeconomic and physical environments.
A pan-Indigenous term that was created in 1990 at the Indigenous Lesbian/Gay gathering in Winnipeg to replace a colonial term with negative connotations. Two spirit is used both as a gender identity and sexuality - there is no one way to be two spirit and the term is not meant as a type of “rigid container for gender or sexuality”
The Permit System
Implemented to bar Indigenous people from selling agricultural or other goods without permission from the crown.
Evironmental Racism
A form of systemic racism, rather than individual racism. That means it is the result of institutional policies and practicies, rather than individual beliefs and actions.
The usage of environmental contaminants on Indigenous communities.
Rematriation
Process of restoring the sacred relationship between Indigenous people and their ancestral land, culture and lifestyles - emphasising the return to stewardship of Indigenous women.
Cultural Genocide
The systematic destruction of traditions, values, language, and other elements that make one group of people distinct from another.
Jordan's Principle
Named after Jordan River Anderson died in hospital. This principle was introduced with the intention to make it so Indigenous children can receive equal access to care even if jurisdictional disputes are ongoing.
Resurgence
The process of revitalizing Indigenous ways of knowing in response to ongoing colonialism.