Indigenous Lecture Series – Rematriating Justice: Honouring the Lives of Our Indigenous Sisters

Presenter: Dr. Jennifer Brant

The control and eradication of Indigenous womanhood in Canada is rooted within a number of colonial policies that intervene with Indigenous women’s rights to birth and mother their own children. A history of racist and sexist views against Indigenous women, continue to shape maternal health experiences today, evident in recent forced and coerced sterilizations; a concern that must also be understood within the context of racialized, sexualized, and gender-based violences against Indigenous women. Matrilineal societies honoured the agency of women and ensured safety through kinship, and they were deemed a threat to the settler colonial land theft project. This presentation will introduce Matriarchal Worlding, an Indigenous feminist orientation for ‘rematriating justice’ and upholding the power and place of Indigenous women and girls.