Racialization of poverty

Today, and for the past thirty years, Indigenous women remain on the forefront of the struggles against gender discrimination in the Indian Act and the oppression inherent in other provincial and Canadian legislation. [...] The women were the caretakers of the home and also held the responsibility of the land (10). [...] Their report points out that: While the roots of this contradictory position can be traced to the structural determination of colonialism and patriarchy, the legacy of this marginalization continues to thrive to this day, in the form of poverty, ill health, sexual and physical abuse, and the silencing of Aboriginal women’s voices in debates over self-government, land claims and the Canadian Charte [...] In 1872, the Grand Council of Ontario and Quebec Indians sent a strong letter to the Minister at Ottawa protesting among other things section 6 of the 1869 act in the following unmistakable terms: ‘They [the members of the grand council] also desire amendments to Section 6 of the Act of 1869 so that Indian women may have the privilege of marrying when and whom they please; without subjecting thems [...] In response to the high number of Indigenous women being displaced from their homes as a result of the section of the Indian Act, the Tobique women began to speak out and fight the legislation.