Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Amber Crowe. I'm the executive director of Dnaagdawenmag Binnoojiiyag Child and Family Services. I am anishinaabekwe from Alderville First Nation.
I would like to say thank you to the previous speakers. It's my humble honour and privilege to also be here today to speak on behalf of indigenous—first nations, Inuit and Métis—women and girls, whose voices often go unheard.
Colonization and the forced assimilation of our people into Canadian society has negatively impacted, and continues to negatively impact, our people, communities and nations. Our women and girls often experience greater negative impacts due to western views of gender roles and the sexualization of women. Overrepresentation in child welfare is rampant across the country. In Canada, an indigenous or first nations child is 17 times more likely to be placed in formal, out-of-home care, which leads to significant mental health issues for both children and mothers. Indigenous people have nearly four times the risk of experiencing severe trauma than the non-indigenous population, and these traumas contribute to their overrepresentation and involvement in the child welfare system.
There are many reasons why indigenous women and girls experience severe trauma. We can look at adverse childhood experiences, which, according to a 2021 study, are reported to be higher among indigenous populations compared with non-indigenous.... Higher adverse childhood experience scores for indigenous participants were associated with increased rates of suicidality and psychological distresses.
What I would like to draw your attention to, today, is something called “protective factors”. For indigenous women and girls, cultural identity, belonging and connectedness are protective factors that can reduce the impact of those negative experiences and traumas. Protective factors are particularly important for our women and girls, because our identities are put into question and stolen. We have experienced this throughout our history—the residential school system and loss of status in the Indian Act. This has impacted many generations.
The loss of identity makes it nearly impossible to belong. As human beings, we are hard-wired for belonging. As indigenous peoples, interconnectedness and interrelations are the reasons for our being. Knowing and understanding who we are in the world helps us move through it and connect with others. When we don't have it, we struggle to belong and suffer.
Indigenous women are approximately three times more likely than non-indigenous women to be victims of violent crime. When these women have children, which most do...this also contributes to their overrepresentation in the child welfare system. More than six in 10 indigenous women have experienced physical or sexual assault in their lifetime, while almost half of indigenous women have experienced sexual assault. At 42%, indigenous women are more likely than non-indigenous women, at 27%, to have been physically or sexually abused by an adult during childhood and to have experienced harsh parenting by a parent or guardian. Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to report having not very much or no confidence in the police compared with non-indigenous women.
Indigenous women are almost six times more likely than non-indigenous women to have been under the legal responsibility of the government. About eight in 10 indigenous women who were under the legal responsibility of the government have experienced lifetime violent victimization. Involvement in the child welfare system leads to lifetimes of violence, victimization and mental health issues; being under the legal responsibility of the government is associated with greater likelihood of lifetime violent victimization—about 81% of indigenous women who were under the legal responsibility of the government have experienced lifetime violent victimization.
Individuals whose parents attended residential schools are at increased risk for greater depressive symptoms, suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder and general psychological distress. For example, studies found that involvement in spiritual activities and having a sense of cultural identity and connectedness were associated with positive mental health outcomes, despite adverse childhood experiences. These are some of the protective factors.
Furthermore, studies have shown that children's involvement with the child welfare system, particularly if they were removed from their mothers, results in significant impacts to their mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
According to the Native Women's Association of Canada, indigenous women make up only 4% of the Canadian population.