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

Recommendations came in three broad areas. The first was intended to set the direction of this research in a specific way. Women called for more information in a number of areas, including providing more colonial context within each section and each issue and providing much more elaboration for the quotes that we used in this report. For example, they wanted an improved discussion on women going into treatment facilities, including the lack of follow-up and support services, the lack of a ‘second stage recovery plan’ beyond sobriety and many other issues related to this topic. They also called for a more quantitative approach that would include accurate demographic data for the various areas, and particularly with regard to our children. They also pointed to their desire to have this document referenced with the writings of Aboriginal women, rather than non-Aboriginal scholars where possible. These are areas that AWAN will take into account in the future work of this project, which we will be exploring with the “Developmental Grant” that we anticipate receiving in September 2001.

The second general area of recommendations was with regard to “inadequate resources, programs and services”. Women felt that if we could delineate or inventory existing programs and services, and the ways that they are resourced, we would be in a better position to observe and critique the ability of an alternative justice program to utilize these services in its work. Women categorically stated that most existing programs and services were so over-burdened that it was very difficult to provide anything more than essential services. Some stressed the need to include medical and health care needs as part of our discussion on anti-violence services. In the area of education and referral, one woman suggested a ‘1-800’ number that Aboriginal women could call, where they could access information that is specific to their concerns. Overall, we think that this speaks to the lack of access to referral services and resource materials. Another service that women felt was critical to an anti-violence plan of action was to have the resources and infrastructure to address systemic forms of discrimination. Many women felt that what little resources that is earmarked for anti-violence services, is often diverted. This could take the form of a weakened anti-violence service delivery, or a total redirection of financial resources to other programs. AWAN would go further and say that what is required is having autonomous Aboriginal women’s organizations to represent Aboriginal women’s concerns. After all, the state presumes a level playing field with regard to power relations in the creation of restorative and alternative justice programs. Our task, then, is to address the patriarchal and paternalistic relationships that disadvantage us, as Aboriginal women.

A third area of recommendations was on the topic of restorative or alternative justice programs. As noted above, women want resources, written in plain language, equipped with clear definitions as a starting point. Women also state that there needs to be a clear delineation of jurisdictions and procedures or methods of decision-making in all alternative justice programs and this information must be available to all community members. Subsequent to these ‘flow charts’, participants called for a detailed account of mandates and job descriptions of victim services workers, Band social workers and other social and community development workers, police and the courts, and Aboriginal political leaders in their work with alternative justice models. They also placed significance on the need to discuss what we mean by such concepts as ‘culture’ and ‘community’ in the context of restorative justice. And they called for a section of our report to be devoted to “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ). In this section, they recommended that we could provide deeper analysis and resource materials on various aspects of restorative and alternative justice models, as well as anti-violence policies. AWAN has recently posted a website, and we see this as one avenue through which we can provide this kind of information. We are also striving to establish a newsletter for Aboriginal women around the province as yet another way of sharing our findings from the various projects that we take on. Just to re-state, the developmental phase of the next stage of work will move toward the fine-tuning of how we can implement some of these recommendations, and to delimit what we can and cannot carry out. Part of this process will require outreaching to communities to form partnerships and requesting permission to work in their territories. The symposium has laid some of that foundation but there is still plenty of work yet to be done.

A fitting way of concluding this report is with a story. During the “Journey for Justice” we were attending a pole raising ceremony when we encountered an Aboriginal male elder whom, some of our members were aware, had sexually abused a woman in his sweat lodge. This man has gone on to work in a mainstream non-Aboriginal organization, still in the helping profession, and continues to enjoy the usual amount of prestige that is normally afforded to an elder. Despite the fear and the debates amongst us, an AWAN member stepped up to the microphone and announced, “You know who you are, we know what you have done and you are not going to continue getting away with what you are doing.” This was a most courageous act and we celebrated this victory as well as debated this action on the raft after our departure. That debate was likely but a microcosm of what occurs in many First Nations communities across this country, and in other Indigenous communities around the world. Some felt that we should work with, instead of against, our men in the healing process. Others felt that this was neither the time nor the place for such an action – some of us asked, “Is there ever a proper time or place to speak this horrible truth?” Anyway, one of the women who rode on the raft with us came to the symposium and provided us with an update of this action. Apparently she returned home and raised this issue several times, only to be met with a wall of silence. She returned home and pondered the avoidance of this topic of conversation, and concluded that the men whom she was speaking with were assuming that our AWAN member was addressing him, with her comments at the pole-raising ceremony. From this we can take the inspiration that, as difficult as this work is, we need to continue to speak out and to expose abuse. And when we break the silence, and risk being perceived as breaking with tradition by speaking out against our elders, who perpetuate the normalization of violence in our midst, we have a very far-reaching impact. All of us walked away from that workshop celebrating that small victory and feeling rejuvenated and prepared for the next stage of this work to end violence against Aboriginal women and children be that intimate or state violence.