Indigenous Women and the Long Road to Justice - A WOW! e-Brief

 

INDIGENOUS WOMEN: AN OVERVIEW

 

Despite progress over the last few decades, indigenous people around the world continue to suffer hardships and often fare worse than their fellow citizens with regard to poverty, workload, health and income.

 

Indigenous peoples are those who inhabited a region before it was conquered and colonized. They often consider themselves distinct from the societies currently governing those areas. It is estimated that there are between 300 and 500 million indigenous people worldwide, about 4 percent of the world’s total population. Indigenous people are located in various places around the world, yet they share certain common characteristics. Often these groups, such as the Native American tribes that inhabit the United States or the aborigines of Australia, have experienced territorial invasion, war and repression of their culture, language and traditions.

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Indigenous women share many of the same conditions and much of the history as their male counterparts. But as women they also confront special situations. First let's look at commonalities.

Beginning in the 1970s, many indigenous people began looking beyond their own group to organize and seek visibility for struggles common to all indigenous people, and to mobilize the attention and resources needed for them to overcome the challenges they face. Some of these challenges include pressure to assimilate into mainstream culture and language, and discrimination based on their differences. The World Council of Indigenous Peoples first met in 1975 in British Columbia, and was followed by a range of organizing work, including the creation of the Center for World Indigenous Studies in 1984.

Despite the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, however, the rights of indigenous people remained without specific safeguards until September 2007, when the United Nations (UN) overwhelmingly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, the culmination of 20 years of work.

In 1985 the Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights of the UN began working on a declaration to address the growing concerns of indigenous people about racial discrimination and human rights abuses. More than 100 indigenous organizations participated in preparing the declaration, which recognizes the right of indigenous people to autonomy, self-determination and control of their own territory and resources for their benefit. It has been criticized, however, because as a mere declaration, it lacks the binding nature of UN conventions, which are subject to international law.

Events within the last few decades, such as the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, and the United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (1995—2004) have addressed issues faced particularly by indigenous women. Indigenous women cope with tremendous challenges. Like most women worldwide, they have experienced discrimination for centuries. For example, they have been forcibly removed from their tribal lands, excluded from mainstream political, social and economic spheres and subjected to genocide.

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When population “control” efforts first began to become popular, it was often indigenous women who were targeted for sterilization both with and without their knowledge. In certain areas, colonization contributed to lowering the status of indigenous women, who had previously experienced a more equal share of power within their communities. The introduction of a foreign culture disrupted the relationship between men and women in indigenous communities, relegating the role of women to a secondary status. Recently, more and more indigenous women have begun to organize themselves to tackle issues dealing with health care, education and violence.

Limited access to health care disproportionately affects indigenous women and children. At the Forum on Indigenous Women of Ecuador, concerned women called attention to the rapid deterioration of health care systems within their communities. They noted that although health care services were provided in many villages, these services were often inadequate and did not meet the needs of the community. For example, in 1990, more than half of the children born in that year died of respiratory and intestinal infections or malnutrition, ailments that could be easily cured.

 

In Guatemala, indigenous women and girls are currently seriously affected by their lack of access to medical services. For example, the percentage of indigenous women who die during pregnancy and childbirth is 83 percent higher than the percentage of non-indigenous women. It is estimated that there is only one doctor per 10,000 rural Guatemalans, and a majority of women and girls go without even an annual check-up. Some governments allege that the health care problems of indigenous peoples lie in the remoteness of their villages and the reluctance of some indigenous groups to utilize health services.

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Indigenous children face numerous obstacles in obtaining a good education.  The traditional approach to educating indigenous children is to integrate these students with the other school children. Integrating children into a mainstream perspective that does not appreciate multiple cultures often ignores the value of indigenous contributions and history, and stigmatizes indigenous cultures for both the indigenous and non-indigenous children. In addition, this approach does not take into account the strength of native traditions and cultural values and overlooks the language barriers between these groups of children. As a result, indigenous communities have high illiteracy rates, and indigenous women especially have poor prospects for income generation and employment, including low wages, because of their lack of education, access to credit and heavy unpaid workloads.

Some indigenous groups initially had a more egalitarian understanding of gender relations. However, colonialism has corrupted some native traditions, leaving women vulnerable in a lower social standing. Additionally, indigenous women have virtually no connections with public services, such as medical care, police protection and transportation, all of which affect their ability to protect themselves from violence.

 

Violence against indigenous women is a major problem worldwide. For indigenous women, violence occurs within the context of the historical violence their groups have experienced for centuries. The systematic exploitation and oppression experienced by indigenous peoples have left their communities among the poorest in the world.

Remnants of tactics used to colonize native communities remain in some parts of the world today, some specifically targeting women with physical and sexual violence. Since the 1990s, in Chiapas, Mexico, women have been subjected to sexual harassment, rape and forced prostitution. During the 1980s and early 1990s in Kenya, at least 1,400 indigenous women have been raped by British soldiers stationed on their lands. Combating violence against indigenous women involves addressing the collective rights of their communities, like sovereignty and self-determination.

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World Neighbors and Indigenous Women in Guatemala

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A WOW! e-Brief

Work of Women @ World Neighbors

January 2008

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