One of the key tools for promoting racism is the dehumanizing of people. I think the importance of the Sisters in Spirit research that's been done is to present both a quantitative and a qualitative...to bring the stories of the women and girls to life so that you can see, “Hey, they like cocoa puffs, and I also like cocoa puffs”, to bring that down to a basic level where you start to relate to these women and these girls who have gone missing or have been murdered.
As we've seen in a lot of the child welfare system, poverty seems to be a crime. And it's not a lack of love; it's a lack of resources. If you bring it down through that poverty line, you can see that this type of discrimination has been present through policies since laws were written in Canada.
We're working with victim services; we're working with the police; we're working to change views and perceptions of our aboriginal people; we're working with the community to start working in conjunction with victim services instead of against. This work is ongoing, but it's definitely perceptions, and a PR campaign has to happen.