Dr. Karen Stote talk

Dr. Karen Stote, who teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Laurier University, gave a talk entitled “Colonialism and the Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Canada.” Dr. Stote’s archival research has helped bring to attention the extent to which indigenous women in the North were subjected to forced sterilizations. She situated forced sterilizations within a discourse of systemic settler colonialism, showing how sterilizations functioned as a cost effective means of erasing indigeneity in Canada. In the discussion following the talk, the audience discussed forced sterilizations as a form of control and violence against women, reproductive justice, coerced consent, and indigenous self-determination.