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Colonialism and Reproductive Justice in Arctic Canada: The Neglected Historical and Contemporary Analysis of Genocidal Policies on Arctic Indigeneous Reproductive Rights

By , and | Article
October 4, 2022
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An Inuit sculpture of a man and a woman carrying a child

A serpentine man and woman with child, sculpted by Qaunaq Mikkigak of Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Photo: Ansgar Walk

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Arctic since time immemorial, establishing rich regional cultures and governance systems long before the introduction of modern borders. The Arctic Institute’s 2022 Colonialism Series explores the colonial histories of Arctic nations and the still-evolving relationships between settler governments and Arctic Indigenous peoples in a time of renewed Arctic exploration and development.

The Arctic Institute Colonialism Series 2022

The intention of this research is to draw connections between historical and contemporary colonialism in so-called “canada” (canada), and the lack of reproductive justice for Arctic Indigenous communities. This research will demonstrate the ways in which colonialism has historically revoked reproductive justice from Indigenous communities, and in which the contemporary Arctic geopolitical circumstances further emphasize difficulties in accessing reproductive care. Further, this research will seek to identify a lack of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice within a larger legacy of colonial genocide, by imposing measures intended to prevent the births of Indigenous children, and by forcibly displacing Indigenous children from their communities.

Though the scope of this work is focused on colonial genocide and reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities, it is important to note the ways in which colonial genocide — perpetrated through the revocation of reproductive justice — impacted Indigenous communities across canada. Violence perpetrated through the separation of children, forced sterilizations, a lack of comprehensive and culturally-informed sexual education, and a lack of basic human needs to food, water, and shelter are not unique to Arctic Indigenous communities. As such, while this research will focus specifically on Arctic Indigenous communities, colonial genocide has impacted reproductive justice in Indigenous communities across canada. Further research should be devoted to the diversity of these impacts on different Indigenous communities.

It is also important to note that this work will specifically address forcible sterilization processes, predominantly tubal ligation; it does not cover canada’s history of performing forced vasectomies on Indigenous people. This is due to the disproportionate percentage of tubal litigations forcefully performed on Indigenous people.1) Further research would be useful to identify how gender uniquely informed medical procedures forced onto Indigenous communities.

This paper spells canada in lower case to resist the legitimization of the colonial state and as a deliberate act of resistance. Finally, gender neutral language is used throughout this paper, to acknowledge the diversity of identities and Indigenous conceptualizations of the gender spectrum.

This work will begin by acknowledging the limitations of this research followed by a note on language used throughout. The paper focuses on reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities followed by a section that expands the impact of colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. The final section expands on themes of colonialism, reproductive justice and genocide and outlines recommendations for future policy and research.

Limitations

It is crucial that as researchers we situate our voices within the literature, and identify the limitations that may impact this work. As two settler and one First Nations researchers, we acknowledge the need to amplify Arctic Indigenous voices, and the ways in which our own research lacks this lived experience. This piece is intended to aid in stimulating conversation surrounding Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, as an underrepresented topic in western academia. All conversations should center the voices of Arctic Indigenous communities.

Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the constraints imposed by western secondary research methods, which often underestimate the value of qualitative research and oral storytelling. This removal of emotion and depersonalization of research has had a negative impact on the way Indigenous communities have come to be represented in western academia.

A Note on Language

Reproductive Justice

This paper uses the Reproductive Justice Framework to guide an understanding of colonial impacts on Indigenous peoples’ autonomy over their health, bodies, and decisions.

In 1994, the Black Women’s Caucus of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance determined the need to adopt a human rights framework for low-income communities and people of colour that addressed issues of bodily autonomy within reproductive decision-making.2) As such, the Reproductive Justice Framework defines the human right to control one’s sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction.3) The reproductive justice framework moves beyond simply considering abortion rights, and addresses the social, economic, and political systems that impact an individual’s capacity to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities.4) The three main tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework state: a) the right to have children; b) the right not to have children; and c) the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment.5)

This research will argue canada’s actions impede on all three tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework. 

Forced Sterilization

The Canadian Medical Protection Association specifies that in order for a medical patient to consent to a procedure, they must be properly informed, they must have the capacity to consent, and that consent must be voluntary.6) Any procedure performed when a patient is under the threat of coercion, or unaware of the full consequence of the procedure, is by nature, nonconsensual. As such, the use of the word “forced” is intentional throughout this paper.

Reproductive Justice in Arctic Indigenous Communities

In order to understand the ways in which colonialism revoked Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, it is important to first establish the ways in which Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice is unique, making it a threat to colonial domination.

In pre-contact societies, Arctic Indigenous peoples held full autonomy of their bodies and sexual abilities. Artic pre-contact societies allowed for full fluidity of relationships; essentially referring to an individual’s relationships outside of the western idea of what romantic and sexual relationships look like (i.e. monogamy). Pre-contact societies were often described by their freedom of autonomy.7) This was true for adults in regards to their relationships and sexual freedoms; however, it also applied more broadly to relationships that community members created in their own lives and among other members of the community. This explained ”fluidity” in relationships extends to communal relationships. Arctic Indigenous children were very freely accepted into other homes and many children came into the care of other community members, separate from their parents without judgment. These so-called “adoptive parents” acted as a community support to one another, ensuring that the children were taken care of and held safe. This role of customary adoption in Inuit communities was a clear representation of the interconnectedness of Inuit societies.8)

These themes of sexual autonomy and community fluidity are exemplary of the strong foundations embedded in Inuit reproductive culture. As such, it is natural that these aspects of Arctic Indigenous culture became the base cause of violent assimilation tactics, used by colonizers to control Arctic Indigenous peoples.

Impacts of Colonialism on Arctic Reproductive Justice

This section will demonstrate the ways in which historical and contemporary colonial policies and practices have negatively impacted Arctic Indigenous communities’ rights to reproductive justice by infringing on their right to parent, right not to parent, and right to parent in a healthy and sustainable environment.

Infringement on the Right to Parent

The government of canada has a vested interest in the removal of Indigenous peoples from their land and communities. Reproductive justice became a primary way of enacting this removal, and infringement on one’s “right to parent” was enacted both by stealing Arctic Indigenous children from their families — through the residential schooling and child welfare systems — and by forcibly sterilizing Indigenous people.9)

The government of canada began legislating residential schools in 1885 in order to legally remove Indigenous children from parental and community care.10) The violent removal of Indigenous children from their families also meant the revocation of Indigenous people’s ability to parent. By 1964, 75% of Inuit school-age children were in attendance at residential schools.11) These schools demonstrate the violent intentions of severing opportunities for Arctic Indigenous parenthood, as part of a grander colonial project.

The government continues to revoke Arctic Indigenous peoples’ right to parent through the child welfare system. Intergenerational trauma from colonial legacies such as residential schools has led to Indigenous communities experiencing high levels of poverty, alcohol abuse, and housing instability12) — all which are considered to be reasons for removal of children by the state.13) The state’s self-appointed power to remove children from their homes and communities allows for the continuous irrevocable traumatization of Arctic Indigenous children, families, and communities.

The other vile and invasive colonial revocation of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice came in the form of forced sterilizations. The practice of forced sterilization in a canadian context dates back to the early 1900s and has been reported as an ongoing practice as recently as 2012.14) Inuit sterilizations were carried out without patients’ consent both in the North and in provincial institutions throughout the 1900s.15) A submission of data by the Medical Services Branch in 1976 brought about by a parliamentary inquiry found that Indigenous patients were disproportionately targeted by forced sterilization.16) The inquiry found that between the years of 1966-1976, 70 sterilizations were performed on Arctic Indigenous community members.17) The collection of Medical Services files omitted from the parliamentary inquiry, however, show that between the years of 1970-1973, 180 Indigenous people were sterilized across 33 Arctic Indigenous settlements.18) It is important to note that the six Arctic Indigenous settlements selected for the parliamentary inquiry were the communities with the least number of sterilizations.19)

In some instances, medical professionals sought consent for tubal ligation using coercion, the leveraging of stressful situations, or misinformation.20) In other instances, doctors simply forewent seeking consent and performed these procedures without the patients’ knowledge.21) Morningstar Mercredi describes her traumatic experience of forced sterilization in her book Sacred Bundles Unborn.22) It took place when she was alone and underage. In all cases, the violent and irreversible revocation of an Indigenous person’s right to parent through the severance of reproductive organs is an ongoing practice of colonial genocide.

In sum, the right to parent poses obvious threats to any colonial project, as it ensures the opportunity for sustained Indigenous presence in canada. As such, canada used residential schools, child welfare practices, and forced sterilization in order to revoke this right, causing lasting negative impacts within Arctic Indigenous communities.

Infringement on the Right Not to Parent

The second tenet of the Reproductive Justice Framework enshrines one’s right not to parent. When considering the right to make a choice about having children, it is integral that one is fully equipped with knowledge and education surrounding their sexual health. The canadian state is responsible for a lack of comprehensive sexual health awareness and education in Arctic Indigenous communities, preventing youth from making informed decisions about reproduction.

A study conducted in 2015 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) confirmed this, finding that sexual health education was inconsistent across the country as well as within provinces and territories.23) The majority of family planning education in Arctic Indigenous communities remains culturally irrelevant, focused solely on the prevention of births and, in some cases, includes abstinence teachings24)

Furthermore, the NCBI study found that Arctic Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to physician bias and outdated practices.25) In a 2013 study which explored five personal stories of sexual health education and services in Yukon, participants shared that the lack of anonymity and access to health services — such as STI testing — led them to avoid these services altogether.26) In addition, participants shared that when seeking an abortion, they hitchhiked for hours to other communities in order to access anonymous and judgement-free health care.27) Access to abortion care is particularly limited in Arctic Indigenous communities, where 64% of the population lives 100km or more from the nearest physician.28) This is further exacerbated by the fact that amongst Yellowknife, Nunavut and Yukon, there are only four total providers for safe access to abortion.29)

Combined, this data is vital in understanding the scale and scope of what constitutes a clear and comprehensive understanding of sexual health, and the ways in which that understanding has been historically and contemporarily denied to Arctic Indigenous youth. By failing to provide this, the canadian government actively infringes on the reproductive justice rights of Arctic Indigenous communities.

Infringement on the Right to Parent Healthily and Sustainably

The right to parent healthily and sustainably is dependent on access to basic human needs such as water, food, and shelter. Yet, colonial policies such as relocations, settlement programs, and residential schooling have curtailed Arctic Indigenous mobility — and subsequent access to adequate housing and food security — since the 1900s.30) When discussing the right to parent healthily and sustainably, it is important to note that inadequate Arctic housing infrastructure and food insecurity are two social determinants of health that have been heavily impacted by canadian colonial policies.

Access to adequate housing is necessary in ensuring the health and safety of one’s child. The chronic housing shortage faced by Arctic Indigenous communities — exacerbated by the lack of social support31) — directly impacts the health of Arctic Indigenous communities, as living situations are often overcrowded, affecting indoor air quality and sanitation.32) As of 2016, in Inuit Nunangat, 51.7% of Inuit lived in crowded conditions, and 31% lived in houses requiring major repairs. Housing infrastructure is also a severe hindrance to socio-economic development, which relies on community infrastructure that can provide a good quality of life for community members.33)

Food insecurity is another social determinant of health that impedes on the right of Arctic Indigenous parents to raise their children in a healthy and sustainable environment. The severity of food insecurity among Arctic Indigenous communities is one of the longest-lasting public health crises in canada, and is attributable to intersecting driving factors, including but not limited to: poverty; climate change; inadequate infrastructure; high cost of living; and systemic racism.34) In fact, food security statistics from the years 2011-2012 states that Nunavut had a food insecurity rate over four times that of the national average, and that the highest rates of food insecurity are found across the three Arctic territories.35)

Beyond physical health, it is important to acknowledge the cultural and spiritual health impacts that canadian colonialism has had on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. Territorial policies related to childbirth and delivery systemically hastened cultural erosion, as most community members were required to be removed to a distant hospital or birthing clinic.36) This prevented the ability to perform birthing celebrations and rituals which are important to Arctic Indigenous cultural and spiritual health.

As such, the holistic perspective offered by the Reproductive Justice Framework is particularly useful in understanding that social and cultural determinants of health are integral to Arctic Indigenous reproductive rights. Arctic Indigenous communities deserved — and continue to deserve — to thrive through parenthood, both physically and culturally. However, it is these thriving communities that are considered antithetical to the success of the canadian colonial project.

Colonialism, Reproductive Justice & Genocide

So far, this paper has aimed to demonstrate the historical and contemporary impacts of the canadian colonial project on Arctic Indigenous communities’ access to reproductive justice. This colonial project was purposeful and could be interpreted as an intent to “destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group…”37) Revoking Indigenous reproductive justice was just one tool that the canadian state used to commit genocide against Indigenous people, by violating Article 2d and 2e of the United Nations Genocide Convention.

The UNGC defines genocide in five categorized acts: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.38)

The canadian state’s infringement on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice could be considered genocide based on Article 2d and 2e of the UNGC. Specifically, Article 2d on the prevention of births is relevant to canada’s history of forced sterilization of Arctic Indigenous women. In fact, the current lawsuit led by Alisa Lombard seeks justice for Indigenous victims of forced sterilization in Saskatchewan, with cases as recent as 2018.39) Similarly, canada’s responsibility for residential schools — and its modern counterpart, the child welfare system — could be considered a violation of Article 2e, which highlights forcible transfer of children.

The state’s 1966 decision to incorporate only UNGC Articles 2a and 2b into the canadian Criminal Code is further evidence of the intentionality behind canada’s avoided accountability for their history of genocide.40)

Recommendations

This research discusses the impacts of canadian colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, and its potential constitution as genocide under the UNGC Article 2d and e. This research is intended to be a contribution to the discussion on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, which should evolve as more research is conducted in new and innovative ways. As such, our recommendations are geared to researchers and academics who are interested in engaging with the topic of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice:

  • Centering Lived Experience and Indigenous Research Methods: To create meaningful and impactful research regarding Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, the application of Indigenous research methods — and amplification of Indigenous voices — is necessary. Currently, academic research often centers the voices of scholars who have experience studying the issues, but who lack a lived experience that appropriately nuances discussions on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. To create a holistic image of what policy, research, and conversations need to be applied, Indigenous voices and ways of understanding need to be amplified;
  • Facilitating Trauma and Care-Informed Discussions: When discussing triggering topics related to colonialism and reproductive justice, it is incredibly important to ensure that one’s approach is survivor-centered, and care-informed. Researchers should ensure proper psychosocial support services for participants involved in the sharing of their stories, and should prioritize community well-being over research outputs;
  • Creating More Cross-Cultural Learning Opportunities: In line with Arctic Indigenous research methods that emphasize oral storytelling and knowledge transmission, researchers should prioritize the facilitation of cross-cultural learning opportunities between Arctic Indigenous communities. These opportunities would allow for knowledge-sharing and collective healing, both which could be instrumental in advancing the reproductive justice dialogue; and
  • Echoing the Senate Committee on Human Rights: This research echoes the Senate Committee on Human Rights from the UN Committee Against Torture in their condemnation of coerced sterilization of Indigenous women, and in their recommendations that: the allegations of forced… sterilization are impartially investigated, that the persons responsible are held accountable and that adequate redress is provided to the victims; and that the state party adopt legislative and policy measures to prevent and criminalize the forced… sterilization of [people]…”41)

Maya Crawford (she/her) is an Algonquin and settler woman from the Snimikobi Community in the Ottawa Valley. Currently an undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa, Maya is in her 4th year majoring in Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies. As an Indigenous academic, Maya’s research has focused on oral storytelling as knowledge, the reality and interconnectivity of Indigenous and Migrant lived experiences on Turtle Island, and providing Indigenous youth with a platform to educate. Jayde Lavoie (she/her) is a queer settler, artist, and academic situated on Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation. A University of Ottawa graduate of Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies, Jayde’s research interests have predominantly focused on Canada’s colonial history, climate justice, and Arctic policy. Reanne Bremner (she/her) is a graduate of Political Science with a focus on woman and gender studies and Indigenous feminisms from the University of Ottawa. As a queer settler currently situated on Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, Reanne’s work centers around human rights education, community-based programming, and youth empowerment with an emphasis on an intersectional and human rights based approach.

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