Indigenous women are vastly overrepresented in Canada’s federal prisons and represent the fastest growing prison population in Canada. This critical commentary utilizes a decolonial framework to examine how being Indigenous and female increases one’s risk of being victimized, murdered, and subject to colonial control by exploring the connections between the construction of Indigenous women as less than human and the use of carceral space to control, destroy, and assimilate this population. Specifically, the authors apply Woolford and Gacek’s notion of genocidal carcerality to the intersectional forces of systemic racism and discrimination that result in their overincarceration. Further, the article critiques the Indigenization of Canada’s federal correctional service for failing to meet the needs of this population and for perpetuating an assimilative and stereotypical portrayal of Indigenous women that perpetuates colonial harm.
Canada has oppressed Indigenous peoples capacity for true sovereignty through colonialism, genocide and attempted assimilation. This devastation manifests in the disproportionate social ills facing Indigenous peoples and their overrepresentation at all levels of the imposed criminal justice system (CJS). Trauma and internalized colonialism have constrained the capacity of Indigenous Nations to reclaim their place in the world as self-governing peoples. Canada has attempted to ‘fix’ this problem through creating parallel systems, trying to fit ‘Indigenous’ conceptions of justice into existing systems, and problematically adopting restorative justice as synonymous with Indigenous justice. The rhetoric of reconciliation and apology mask the continual genocidal, assimilative goals of the state. With these caveats in mind, the need to reject internalized colonialism and develop capacity for the development of sovereign Indigenous justice systems will be examined.
In this article I present an overview of findings from research into the formation of a sovereign Haida Tll Yahda justice system. I briefly examine the imposition of colonial governance, justice, and ways of being on suppressing Haida ways of life. Through a series of semi-structured interviews I addressed the following research questions: What does justice mean to the Haida? How could Haida conceptions of justice be implemented in modern day? In this paper, I focus on two themes; namely, Building capacity for Tll Yahda and Establishing Tll Yahda. The results of this research illuminate the importance of continued decolonization – and that re-instituting our own sovereign ways of doing justice through a Haida Tll Yahda system is possible, while also offering important considerations for decolonization and ensuring Canada is held accountable.
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