Indigenous Women’s Survival and Security in Northern Turtle Island, Canada

 

Chair: Liza Black Citizen of Cherokee Nation (Indiana University – Bloomington, History, Native American and Indigenous Studies)

 

  • Karine Duhamel Anishinaabe-Métis (Independent scholar, History, Canada)
    Reclaiming Power and Place: Confronting Genocide Within the Context of Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

 

  • Catherine Richardson/KinewesquaoMétis (Concordia University, Canada, First Peoples Studies)
    The Honour of One is The Honour of All:  Dignity and Safety for Indigenous Women and Girls – Perspectives from Northern Turtle Island/Canada

 

  • Janie Dolan Cake (FRIDAA Project, Québec, Canada, Social Work)
    “FRIDAA” as a Process to Support Those Working With Indigenous Women Who Are Experiencing Violence

 

  • Nancy Marie Mithlo Fort Sill Chiricahua Apache (University of California, Los Angeles, Gender Studies and American Indian Studies)
    Owning Hate, Owning Hurt: The Aesthetics of Violence in American Indian Contemporary Art

 

  • Liza Black Citizen of Cherokee Nation (Indiana University – Bloomington, History, Native American and Indigenous Studies)
    What Made Vanessa Scream: MMIWG in Historic Context

 

Liza Black is a citizen of Cherokee Nation, meaning Cherokee Nation claims her as a citizen. Recently on fellowship at University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Black is completing her book manuscript: How to Get Away with Murder: A Transnational History of Missing and Murdered Indigenous WomenHow to Get Away with Murder provides six case studies of women and girls. Professor Black received tenure at Indiana University where she is an Associate Professor of History and Native American and Indigenous Studies. In 2020, she published Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, a deeply archival book making the argument that mid-century Native people navigated the complexities of inhabiting filmic representations of themselves as a means of survivance. She has received several research grants including the Ford pre-, doc and post-doc fellowships; the Institute of American Cultures at UCLA fellowship; and the Cherokee Nation Higher Education Grant.

 

Karine Duhamel is Anishinaabe-Métis and a member of Red Rock First Nation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Allison University, a Bachelor of Education from Lakehead University and a master’s degree and PhD in History from the University of Manitoba. Dr. Duhamel was formerly Adjunct Professor at the University of Winnipeg and Director of Research for Jerch Law Corporation. From 2016 to 2018, she also served as Curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. More recently, Dr. Duhamel served as Director of Research for the historic National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, drafting the Final Report as well as managing its Forensic Document Review Project and Legacy Archive. Dr. Duhamel is now a full-time public servant working to implement the National Inquiry’s Calls for Justice, as well as a consultant working with organizations across the country to develop new approaches to research that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing.  She is also an active member of several boards and committees including the Canadian Historical Association, the International Council of Museums, and the International Council on Archives. Dr. Duhamel is a frequently requested Speaker for the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba.

 

Catherine Richardson/Kinewesquao, Ph.D. is the Director of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University in Tiotá ke, a counsellor, and an advocate for victims of violence. Her research has included Domestic Homicide in Canada, structural violence against youth, systemic mother and victim-blaming, and response-based practice. Catherine is a member of the Metis nation, with Cree and Gwichin ancestry. Her work is aimed at helping people recover from violence in a spirit of dignity and social justice. She is the author of several books and has been working in Indigenous communities for over 25 years.

 

Janie Dolan Cake is a researcher, advocate, activist, facilitator, and speaker. She was born and raised in Tiohtiá:Ke/Montreal, recognized as the territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation. She completed a Master’s degree in Social Work and has been associated for more than 10 years with the fight against violence against women and structural violence. She did street intervention work with Indigenous women in Monterrey, Mexico. Part of her approach included integrating response-based practice, an approach based on social justice and upholding the dignity of the women victims of violence. Ms. Dolan-Cake has worked as Research Assistant to Dr. Catherine Richardson for over six years. She is coordinator of the FRIDAA project in Quebec (Femmes, Recherche, Intervention, Development, Approche, Autochtone).

 

Nancy Marie Mithlo (Fort Sill Chiricahua Apache) is a Professor of Gender Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Mithlo’s curatorial work has resulted in nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. A life-long educator, she has taught at the University of New Mexico, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Santa Fe Community College, Smith College, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her co-edited 2022 book Visualizing Genocide: Indigenous Interventions in Art, Archives and Museums was published by the University of Arizona Press.