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The Implications of Restorative Justice For Aboriginal Women and Children Survivors of Violence

This paper is intended as a comparative overview of five Aboriginal communities in British Columbia and the possible implications of initiating Restorative Justice reforms in cases of violence against women and children in these communities. This document examines the ways in which Aboriginal women’s experience of colonization is mediated by gender and attempts to locate the effects of violence against women and children within this trajectory. As Aboriginal women it is our belief that our voices must be considered before any discussion of restorative justice and diversion of K files (files on violent offences against women and children) takes place. This paper will provide a look at the conditions of women’s lives within community, and provide a frame of reference and context should these reforms become more commonly used in cases of violence against women and children. Restorative justice as it is used for violent offenses should not be theoretical abstracted ideas that are formed in a vacuum by government officials, romanticized and removed from the context of our lives as Aboriginal people. These reforms can and do have a profound impact on women and children’s safety particularly in communities that are geographically and socially isolated. This paper attempts to articulate our numerous concerns, taking both women’s voices and current theory around restorative justice such as John Braithwait’s ideas on reintegrative shaming [1] into consideration. A study group has been planned to look at a broad cross section of the many readings on Alternative dispute resolution to help with the writing up of our research.

The Aboriginal Women’s Action network’s research is done in the form of a Participatory Action model based on a reciprocal exchange of information between researchers and participants with both learning from each other, rooted in our commonality of experience as Aboriginal women. This project was based in community involvement throughout the course of the research with consultation in three major stages. The project began with the series of workshops at the Native Education Center where we educated each other around violence, the criminal justice system and restorative justice. We began at this stage to envision a longer-term project with the research coming about as a result of our concern over what we felt to be a lack of Aboriginal women’s voice in the development of these restorative justice reforms. The first stage involved comparing women’s experiences of violence in an urban setting to those in more isolated communities. The Advisory Committee came up with the idea for the river rafting as a way to raise awareness of the issue of violence against Aboriginal women and children. Focus groups were held to explore the implications these reforms may have in cases of violence against women and children in the communities along the way. We developed questions for these groups out of our workshops at the Native Ed. Center and through input from Advisory Committee members who work in the anti-violence field. We conducted focus groups along the Fraser, with one in the Downtown Eastside in January 2001. Extensive outreach and preparation was carried out ahead of time to ensure respectful community involvement (see section on methodology). A thematic analysis was drawn from the data collected and the second stage of community collaboration began in the New Year with a follow-up trip into communities visited on the “Journey for Justice”. We interviewed women from the community, women who were involved in the Focus Groups and women doing anti-violence work. This particular phase of the project was imperative to the process of research as collaboration in that we were committed to the work reflecting the concerns of women from these communities and not just our own perception from the city. We formulated further questions around demographics and returned to integrate the new material with what we had previously gathered.

The final phase of community collaboration was the symposium that we held at Sasamat Lake, outside of Vancouver in March 2001. This symposium brought women from all over the province together to dialogue around the issue of restorative justice and alternative measures in cases of violence against Aboriginal women and children. The panelists we have chosen reflect a wide range of opinion around the issue from those in favor of the reforms and presently working in programs that are currently diverting cases to those who feel the risk is far too great to women and children.

The symposium will provide a network with other women involved in the research and criminal Justice field as well as representatives from communities who currently practice these reforms or are considering their implementation. Part of the purpose for the symposium is to identify communities who may be interested in being part of further research AWAN is planning to conduct. AWAN has tentative funding from the Law Foundation of BC to continue with the work which includes a plan to carry out interviews and Focus Groups in 6 additional communities around the province on the topic of Restorative Justice and Alternative Measures. A National Symposium on the issue is planned for January 2003.