Rematriating Justice: Honouring the Lives of Our Indigenous Sisters





Price: $39.95

Page Count: 287

Publication Date: June 2024

ISBN: 978-1-77258-503-2

In June 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its Final Report titled Reclaiming Power and Place. The report documented 231 “Calls for Justice” demanding immediate action against racialized, sexualized and gender-based violence. The report condemned Canadian society for its inaction and described the violence as “a national tragedy of epic proportion.” It has been eight years since the release of Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada (2016) and four years since the release of Reclaiming Power and Place and we continue to witness racialized, sexualized and gender-based violences across Turtle Island. This book contributes to these Calls for Justice by demanding accountability and policy change. The book centres the voices of Indigenous women, families and communities by offering essays, testimonies, and reflections that honour collective calls to rematriate justice for our Indigenous sisters.

Grounding us in pluralities of perspectives Rematriating Justice takes readers on a journey inside Indigenous women’s realities. This timely collection unveils layers of patriarchal colonial oppression, urging readers to confront uncomfortable truths about racialized, sexualized and gendered violences. This collection empowers readers with voices and stories essential for igniting change. Highly recommended.

- Lisa Monchalin, Ph.D., Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, Author of The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, Faculty in the Department of Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Education is power. This book exudes critical thought and unleashes the unfortunate and unacceptable past. Through a collection of essays, memoir and poetry, the stories enable readers to grasp the complexities associated with racialized, sexualized and gender-based violences, and better understand the active engagement needed to address the Calls to Justice.
My aunt is one of the many murdered women. I support this book in honour of her.

- Christina Reid, Member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. Executive Director, Jordan’s Principle.

Introduction
Rematriating Justice:
Honouring the Lives of Our Indigenous Sisters Jennifer Brant and D. Memee Lavell-Harvard 11
Part One Centring MMIWG2S+ 31
1.
Refusal and Reprisal: Colonial Fragility, Genocidal Violence, and the Murder of Helen Betty Osborne
Robyn Bourgeois
33
2.
“Chantel Was Sunshine”: Centralizing Indigenous Mothering in an Honouring Story of Chantel Moore Josephine Savarese
51
3.
Disrupting Mainstream Media Representations of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Sana Shah
81
4.
Healing and Motherhood: In Conversation with
D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, Anne Taylor, Sarah Lewis, and Lisa Trefzger Clarke
D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, MaangKwan Anne Taylor, Sarah Lewis, and Lisa Trefzger Clarke
99
5.
Accomplice
Alyssa M. General
117
Part Two
Community Action and Education to Address MMIWG2S+
119
6.
Closing Thoughts: River Women Collective’s Reflections on the Final Ceremonial and Artistic Installation of Walking With Our Sisters
Cheryl Troupe and Janice Cindy Gaudet
121
7.
A Walking With Our Sisters Syllabus
Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing
137
8.
Pedagogical Considerations on Teaching “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women from a Global Perspective” Brenda Anderson
155
9.
Human to Human
Chevelle Malcolm
171
Part Three Transforming Our Worlds 173
10.
Indigenous Women’s Literature: The Power and Truth of Our Words Jennifer Brant
175
11.
Disentangling Victimhood in Canadian Antihuman Trafficking: A Transformative Justice Response
Rosemary Nagy
201
12.
Healing with Indigenous Feminisms: The Decoloniality of Embodiment, Self-Love, and Desire
Jo Billows
225
13.
kimiyokîsikaw: Iskwewak Reclaiming Sovereignty,
a Love Letter from Decolonial Self-Lovers
Lana Whiskeyjack, Janice Cindy Gaudet, Tricia McGuire-Adams, and Jennifer Ward
243
14.
Poems
Thamer Linklater
259
15.
To My Sister I Have Never Met
Sherry Emmerson
263
16.
Reflections and Virtual Tea
Jennifer Brant with Maria Campbell and Kim Anderson
265
Notes on Contributors
281

Dr. Jennifer Brant belongs to the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk Nation) with family ties to Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

Jennifer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto where she writes and teaches about Indigenous maternal pedagogies and Indigenous literatures. Her work positions Indigenous literatures as educational tools to foster sociopolitical action and calls for immediate responses to racialized, sexualized, and gender-based violence.

Dr. Dawn Memee Lavell Harvard, Ph.D., is a proud member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, on Manitoulin Island and currently serves as the Director at the First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University. She was recognized as the first Indigenous Trudeau Scholar for her work in Indigenous education and has sought to advance the rights of Indigenous women and their families in various roles including her past presidency of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. She continues her advocacy through her current role on the Board of the Canadian Women's Foundation, the National Indigenous Women's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem, Roots of Empathy, Mothers Matter Centers, and the local Community Health Center.