Good morning, committee. Thank you so much for having me here.
My name is Courtney Skye. I'm a research fellow with the Yellowhead Institute, and I am Mohawk Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River territory.
I want to acknowledge the Algonquin territory, where many of you are sitting, and welcome you virtually to the Haudenosaunee territory, the homeland of my ancestors and our allies.
I want to share Cora's words in acknowledging the families and the women and people who experienced sex exploitation and the reason we're here to gather and discuss today.
My research centres around ending violence and the intersection between ending violence against indigenous women and girls and leadership and governance. I have a particular interest in research around Haudenosaunee governance and invigorating and revitalizing the traditional governance systems that are inherent with indigenous laws and practices. That includes looking at research and multinational approaches.
My work around human trafficking extends back to when I was a policy analyst with the Ontario public service, working on child welfare reform through working with indigenous women's organizations across Ontario and Canada, and then working internationally with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which looks at multijurisdictional responses and policy frameworks that address all forms of human trafficking. I have a particular interest especially in the interjurisdictional issues that often impact both the legislative changes and the policy changes required to end multiple forms of trafficking.
I think it's important in this conversation to remember that there is a spectrum. While we're here to talk about sex exploitation and trafficking, it's important to remember that there are spectrums of this conversation that often get conflated or misconstrued, both in challenging the legitimacy of sex work as work and also in the many different forms of trafficking that indigenous people may experience, whether it's trafficking for forced labour, trafficking for adoption or other forms of trafficking that are known to be experienced by people who experience the multiple forms of barriers that indigenous people face.
I'm happy to meet with the committee and talk about these issues. If there are any particular topics or areas that would be useful to your study, I am here and anxious to have those conversations.
As always, I want to be mindful of some of the issues that Cora raised as well around some of the failures to implement foundational human rights frameworks that are necessary to address the reason why indigenous women are more vulnerable to different forms of violence, but also that we look towards indigenous communities themselves, their human rights frameworks and their own inherent laws and jurisdictions. They need to be revitalized to address some of the underlying issues that raise a concern around the specific population that we're here to talk about today.
Thank you so much for having me.