Inuit Voices: What is lacking is political will #MMIWG

News  Sep 12, 2024  MMIWG

Pauktuutit leader calls for Inuit voices to be heard in fight against violence

Nancy Etok shares experience from meeting with Indigenous women from U.S., Mexico earlier this month in Mexico City

Pauktuutit president Nancy Etok, left, speaks at the Sixth Convening of the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Women and Girls in Mexico City, which ran Sept. 3 and 4. (Photo courtesy of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada)

By  Kierstin Williams

Inuit voices must be included in conversations about ending violence against Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, says Pauktuutit president Nancy Etok.

Etok attended a trilateral working group that included representatives from Canada, the United States and Mexico on Sept. 3 and 4 in Mexico City on behalf of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, the national non-profit Inuit women’s organization.

The meeting aimed to address the alarming rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

“We were able to share what kind of work we do at Pauktuutit,” Etok said, adding she also had the chance to listen to what Indigenous women had to say about finding solutions.

“If I were to close my eyes and just listen, all women were facing all of the same struggles with violence,” she said.

The trilateral working group was established as a result of the North American Leaders Summit in June 2016, which brought national leaders from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico together to discuss the “alarming” rates of violence against this demographic, a joint statement from the group released Sept. 5 said.

This month’s meeting marked the sixth time the working group has convened.

Etok said the discussions in Mexico City highlighted the ongoing failure by governments to implement promises made to Indigenous communities.

For Canada specifically, she said the federal government must be held accountable on following through on recommendations stemming from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The MMIWG inquiry was hosted across Canada between 2016 and 2019. It gave Indigenous women and girls the chance to provide testimony about their experiences with violence, police, the justice system and other colonial systems.

In its final report, released in 2019, the inquiry said high rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls amounts to a genocide. It released 231 calls to action aimed at governments, institutions and the public.

“The Government of Canada has been given a clear path forward to end this genocide. What is lacking is political will,” said Etok.

In a joint statement from the meeting, the trilateral working group called on the three countries’ governments to respond to the group’s demands from previous years by Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The group wants to see a “matrix” of each of the trilateral group’s demands by year. It should provide corresponding information as to how the governments have responded to these demands, and include resources developed and future plans for continuing efforts on the group’s requests.

“Pauktuutit is going to keep asking on what the government committed to. They need to start delivering,” said Etok.

“Inuit women’s voices must be heard and it’s absolutely essential that Pauktuutit is included in those conversations because we have the ideas, we have the solutions, and we are ready.”

Members of the working group are scheduled to have quarterly meetings to allow Indigenous leaders to independently shape the group’s agenda and focus on priorities outside the influence of the three national governments.  Indigenous leaders in the U.S. are set to host the first meeting on Jan. 15.

“With unwavering resolve and collective commitment to justice, we stand united in our mission to create a future where Indigenous rights are honoured, respected, upheld, and protected,” reads a portion of the group’s statement.