Aboriginal women do not see our cultures as a source of gender oppression; this trait was picked up

some where along the colonization process. Traditionally Aboriginal men and women saw each other as
being complimentary to each other, helping and supporting each other in their separate duties as men
and women.

Description of Need

Aboriginal women and their children are among the most disparaged in Canadian society today.
According to the data collected by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, as of March 2010 there
were at least 582 Aboriginal women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada.
There are many reasons for the disparagement of Aboriginal women in Canada including, colonization,
residential schools and the condemning legislation that is the Indian Act are only a few. Archaic and
matriarchal in sense the Indian Act has soley been responsible for stripping Aboriginal women and their
children of their status leaving them further impoverished in an already poverty stricken existence.

the higher Aboriginal populations in all urban areas such as ours, according to an article published by
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada the urban Aboriginal population is booming with some major cities
reporting double the Aboriginal population numbers. The article also states that “In 2006, more
Aboriginal women than men resided in urban areas …” (http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/ofi/uas/fs/index-
eng.asp). This could be occurring for a number of different reasons such as; there are more people in
general, self identifying as Aboriginal but the most obvious would be that Aboriginal women have no
homes on reserve. Many Aboriginal women that live on reserve face a multitude of housing problems
that range from just not having one, having a unfit home in bad need of repair, or being kicked out of
the family home by your husband because your marriage fell apart and the house is his. Often in
Aboriginal marriages it is the female that will move from her reserve to live with her new husband on his
reserve. The house they move into will belong to either him or his family, the land it’s on will belong to
his band. The matrimonial property act does nothing to protect these women as it does not cover real
property and the Indian Act does even less and is well known for treating women in a fashion that was
the norm during the era that it was created (1876). As a result of this after divorce many times it is the
women and her children that have to leave the family home and with mass housing shortages on every
reserve they are forced to move into urban areas that bring on a number of issues including culture
clash and employment problems. Friendship centers in general have had mass funding shortages for a
long time, in fact the lot of them have not had an increase in any type of funding since 1996. Surely the
mass population increases in the urban aboriginal population along with the crisis Aboriginal women are
facing at a national level regarding poverty, violence and a lack of leadership roles in their own
communities is troubling enough to garner support but sadly enough it hasn’t and although we here at
the Bonnyville Canadian Native Friendship Centre want to reach out to all people we cant due to
financial issues. Currently the Bonnyville Canadian Native Friendship Centre has many programs aimed
at fulfilling our mandate which is to create a healthy, positive and productive community by working
together to empower families and individuals through innovative and cultural services. Currently we
have a clothing depot, food bank and soup kitchen all free of charge to anyone in the community who
needs them. We have a Youth Club and an elders program but nothing specifically for Aboriginal
women.

This program should be funded by Status of Women Canada because if fulfills all objectives of its
mandate. These women need help and with none from their communities and none from the
government these women and their children will be forced to turn to the streets for food and shelter.

Description of Project

The proposed project will target Aboriginal women and their families in an effort to address their overall
health and wellness. The objectives of the program are to help Aboriginal women maintain and preserve
their cultural distinctiveness by examining our role as women in traditional and modern society through
a series of workshops aimed at synthesizing our collective identity as a People and our individual
identities as women. These workshops will aim to enhance and develop leadership skills so that we will
begin to play central roles in our own communities as well as undertake projects to improve the over all
social and economic conditions that are unique to our people.