Are we failing Indigenous women who face family abuse and violence? A plea to return to the teachings

Since Indigenous people have been in contact with the European population, the value system of Indigenous peoples has been viewed as “not as good as” (Sinclair, 2017, 30:00). The devastating outcomes are a forced integration and assimilation of a visitor nation’s ways of life and as such, the eradication of Indigenous ways of being, doing and knowing. When individuals are forced to engage in another’s value system, often their understanding of their own values gets lost. Indigenous women of Canada have been assimilated into European culture, and with that came the emergence of domestic violence, spousal abuse, and family violences which have invaded some family’s daily routines, or experiences. Many Indigenous women who suffer violence and abuse, experience loss of self-respect, family, friends, jobs, and their children (Government of Canada, 2012). The social structures such as the justice system, and family services, as examples, that are available today for Indigenous women to overcome the cycle of violence, are not always being delivered in culturally safe ways (Brennan, 2011). Culturally safe practices and procedures are critical in organizations that support Indigenous women who have been exposed to domestic violence (Klingspohn, 2018). Counteracting discriminatory, racial ideologies to protect Indigenous women is paramount. Our ancestral teachings and cultural teachings are something service providers can utilize daily in order to adequately address the needs of Indigenous women to heal and supercede the abuses they have suffered.