Forced Sterilization
Chair/Discussant: Beverly Jacobs Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Bear Clan (University of Windsor, Canada, President’s Office)
- Dawn Martin-Hill Mohawk, Wolf Clan (McMaster University, Canada, Cultural Anthropology, Indigenous Studies)
Women’s Law Uterine Law
- Ñusta Carranza Ko (University of Baltimore, US, Political Science)
Genocide, the Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Peoples of Peru and the Meaning of Justice
- Discussion/Q&A
Beverly Jacobs, CM, LLB, LLM, PhD, Mohawk Nation of the Haundenosaunee Confederacy, Bear Clan, was recently appointed as Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Relations and Outreach at the University of Windsor and she practices law part-time at her home community of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Her research focuses on Indigenous Legal Orders, Indigenous Wholistic Health, Indigenous Research Methodologies, and Decolonization of Eurocentric Law. Beverly obtained a Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Windsor in 1994, a Master of Law Degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Calgary in 2018. Dr. Jacobs is a former President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (2004 to 2009). Beverly has been appointed as Indigenous Human Rights Monitor with the Mohawak Institute Residential School Survivors’ Secretariat, established in 2021 to organize and support efforts to uncover, document, and share the truth about what happened at the Mohawk Institute during its 136 years of operation. Beverly is a consultant, researcher, writer, and public speaker. Her work centers around ending gendered colonial violence against Indigenous people and restoring Indigenous laws, beliefs and traditions. A prolific scholar, her published work has earned her numerous awards; her research combined with her advocacy has translated into national and international recognition.
Dawn Martin-Hill (Mohawk, Wolf Clan) holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and is one of the original founders of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University. She resides at Six Nations with her family. She has been publishing Indigenous knowledge research since 1992. Her book Indigenous Knowledge & Power: the Lubicon Lake Nation (1997) documents the human impact of oil and forestry extraction in northern Alberta. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications in Journal of Aboriginal Health, NAHO and chapters in books including In the Way of Development, Strong Women Stories and Women’s Spiritual Traditions. She founded the Haudenosaunee Environmental Health Task Force to build community infrastructure of environmental health research located on Six Nations, and to explore how Indigenous families’ wellness is impacted by lack of access to clean water. All research is dedicated to upholding environmental rights of Haudenosaunee women to their lands and bodies. Recently, Dawn partnered with Six Nations Polytechnic and McMaster University in developing the Ogwehoweh Language Diploma and is the Co-Chair of Indigenous Knowledge Centre Steering Committee. She currently holds a SSHRC grant for “Preserving Haudenosaunee language and ceremonies through the digitization and translation of the Hewitt Collection” with community partner Six Nations Polytechnic.
Ñusta Carranza Ko is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore. She is of Indigenous Peruvian (Quechua-speaking peoples from the Northern Andes of Peru) and Korean descent. Her research sits at the intersection of her ethnic identities, with a focus on cross-regional transitional justice practices in Latin America and Asia, historic women’s rights violations in South Korea, and Indigenous women’s rights matters in Peru. She is the author of Truth, Justice, Reparations in Peru, Uruguay, and South Korea: The Clash of Advocacy and Politics (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), co-author of Theories of International Relations and the Game of Thrones (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019), and has also published several articles and chapters in memory and genocide studies. Her work centering Indigenous peoples in Peru focuses on the coercive sterilization of Indigenous women and the legal frame of genocide. She is currently working on a second book on coercive sterilizations that documents the stories and experiences of Indigenous victims, Indigenous activists, and allies of the Indigenous women’s rights movements.