Impact of Settler Colonialism on Indigenous Women’s Heart Health

Prior to European Settler contact, Indigenous women are described as socially, politically and economically powerful actors and key decision makers in matters of family, governance and relationship to land.

Traditional roles of women were balanced and stable, allowing women both safety and power within their respective societies. Women were highly esteemed for their contributions to the survival of the whole nation. Many pre-contact Indigenous societies, were matriarchal and matrilineal which ensured women’s authority and legitimate place in their societies. While both men and women were considered equal, both also enjoyed a personal autonomy within their societies. It was generally believed that the Creator bestowed upon women, their special gifts as life-givers and as care takers, as mothers and wives.

Historical scholarship also acknowledged two main forms of Indigenous women’s domestic labour; for example, orienting people to Indigenous territory during the fur trade. Their work was considered crucial to the trade including provision of food; the making of clothing, moccasins and snowshoes; acting as guides, interpreters and diplomats.

Traditionally, Indigenous women always played an important role in their families and communities with respect to their health and well-being. Older generations of women have spoken about learning values and skills in the family and applying them to community service. Their awareness of community needs was often informed through personal crisis.

Gunn Allen notes that the ‘coming of the white man’ created chaos in all the old systems which for the most part are described as ‘superbly healthy, simultaneously cooperative and autonomous, peace-entered and ritual-oriented.’ It is also noted that the success of their systems depended on complementary institutions and organized relationships among all sectors of their world. Each part was necessary to the balanced and harmonious functioning of the whole.

Women’s roles were devalued by Settler colonizers and there was also a lack of respect for their knowledge. This situation is attributed to the process of colonization and the adoption of Western patriarchal norms and practices. Racist and sexist stereotypes and the institutionalization of policies and practices negatively impacted Indigenous women’s ability to engage in leadership and governance roles. This is perhaps most prominently evident in the sexist provisions of the federal government’s Indian Act that prevented women from participating in their community governance systems. Overall, Indigenous women are noted to have faced intentional and systematic political, economic and social exclusion.

This quote from scholar and activist Pam Palmater highlights the overall negative impact of the Indian Act on Indigenous women.

In contemporary times, Brant-Castellano argues that First Nations, Métis and Inuit women are struggling to regain agency in their lives, ‘reclaiming the power, traditional to their cultures, to act and to cause things to happen.’ (Valaskakis, p. 206).

Gunn Allen notes the modern American Indian women are in a struggle to redefine themselves and that in this process, they have to reconcile traditional tribal definitions of women. However, women’s roles are diverse as tribal cultures in North America (1986). Sometimes, they are devalued and in others, a woman may hold power. Her role may be tied to her individuality, or it may be tied to family or clan or nation (Allen, 1986).

Women often describe the work that they do in community as ‘healing’ in the Indigenous sense of restoring balance to the lives of individuals. Balance was seen in the sense of physical, emotional, spiritual and mental realms and seen as having an impact in the community and the Nation. First Nations women are also noted to play important roles as practitioners and transmitters of knowledge that combines traditional and mainstream medicine.