Thank you very much.
I would like to extend my apologies on behalf of our chair, Chief Day Walker-Pelletier, who is unable to attend in person this morning to present her own statement. Our legislative assembly for our chiefs is meeting for the next few days, and this morning is an important part of this process.
I will be reading her statement verbatim, and therefore may refer to āIā, meaning Chief Day Walker-Pelletier and not myself. It is her statement and should be reflected as such in the notes.
I will begin. The statement reads as follows:
I would first like to thank the chair, the Honourable Hedy Fry, for the opportunity to contribute to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I am Chief Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation, Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan. I have been chief of my first nation for 30 consecutive years. I also sit as chair of the Saskatchewan First Nations' Women's Commission within the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations structure.
It gives me great pride that I am able to assist in the successes of my community and champion the causes and rights of first nations women and children.
In Saskatchewan, we currently have 10 first nations women chiefs and more than 140 other women in leadership capacities. It is our mandate at the women's commission and as first nation leaders to ensure that our communities flourish and that our membership is given every opportunity possible to succeed. It is a difficult path, considering that in our past various legislation and policies have been used to keep first nations people from succeeding. Residential schools have had such a negative impact on our people that two or three generations later the effects are still clearly evident. Violence against first nations women and children is rampant in our communities, born from the cycle of abuse created from residential schools.
Within the last three years, the Saskatchewan First Nations' Women's Commission has gathered research from women within our communities in Saskatchewan regarding violence. We went out to several communities and talked to more than 300 women, and our findings were astounding: 10 out of 10 women had experienced violence within their lives, either as children or as adults. Further to that, when we asked whether the women had ever had a crime committed against them, very few women answered yes, yet many had answered that they had been assaulted by their partners or someone in their lives. What this showed us was that women do not even comprehend what violence is and how it is not right for them to be experiencing it. Our response was to go back out into the communities and identify ways that women can keep safe. We identified that violence against any person is not right, and then we went back to the very basics and discussed what violence really is.
Today I'm here to ask you to respect our abilities as first nations leaders. I know what my community needs. I understand the complexities that exist on my reserve pertaining to violence.
When a woman experiences violence, it affects her ability to be a supportive mother, maintain a job, contribute to the household income, and take part in our many community activities. Our communities are based on family threads, and when a women is in a volatile relationship, she will often cut off these threads, which contributes to her and her children being confined to living with violence.
According to the World Health Organization, violence against women is an issue of public policy and is a human rights concern. As a community leader, I believe that this is true and I am trying to ensure that the human rights of all my members are met. This includes our collective rights as a nation. Our communities are family oriented and work together as a community, as we have always done in the past. This is a main staple of our nationhood.
I'm willing to work towards developing a course of action to prevent violence against women. We must identify the women in our communities who are experiencing abuse. We must create talking circles, support groups, and educational awareness seminars to assist in this effort. More access to safe houses should be available on our first nations or within our tribal council areas. They must be developed based on our holistic beliefs and be based on our traditions where women have always held power in our communities. Women must feel safe, be treated with respect, and have access to professional support, yet there is very little funding available for development of action-oriented solutions.
I know you are looking for information that you can identify recommendations on, to influence future legislation. Today I have already identified recommendations to you, including access to funding to create our own solutions. First nations people are unique to anyone else in Canada. We have a treaty-based relationship with the government signed by our respective forefathers, and we would like to ensure this process is respected.
November 25 has been designed as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by the United Nations General Assembly. Within the next nine months, let us work together to begin the process of change for our women experiencing violence. I ask you today to recommend a commitment to give funding to first nations to develop safe shelters for our women and children who need help at a local level.
Thank you.