We are excited to promote October as Latin American Heritage Month (deemed by Parliament, June 21, 2018) along with the Department of Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion. In honour of this we are planning an exciting event filled with conversations surrounding Latin American Heritage and Culture.
Celebrating the Latin American Community in Canada
Talk: Binational Dialogues on the Challenges to Document Violence Against Indigenous Women in Mexico and Canada
This presentation draws from a dialogue that inquiries about the production of knowledge on gender violence that affects Indigenous women from Turtle Island (North America). We are part of a partnership that comprises Indigenous women leaders and scholars from Canada and Mexico who aim to analyze to what extent institutional policies fail to eradicate the colonial and structural violence that affects Indigenous women and their peoples. In Mexico and Canada, violence is structured within colonial frames of reference that produce unjust social systems and hierarchies with consequences that include but are not limited to the continuity of policies, ways of thinking and processes that have destructive consequences for Indigenous communities and territories, resulting in material deprivation, lack of culturally-informed social services, forced displacement, and the decapitalization of the rural economy. From our perspective the search for gender justice in the South and North is not possible without a critique of colonial racism that determines the lenses and mechanisms that produce institutional data on human rights violations, gender violence against Indigenous men and women, as well as violence against the LGBTQ community.
Dr. Figueroa Romero holds a PhD in sociology from York University and is a member of the Centre for Research on Latin America, and the Caribbean (CERLAC). Her work focuses on the internationality of violence and ethnicity. She has written about Indigenous women’s participation in ethno-politics, community development, and the struggle for autonomy in their communities.
Norma Don Juan Pérez is an Indigenous leader, human rights activist, and organizer. She is a member of the National Organization of Indigenous Women (CONAMI) and the Mexican human rights network RUDH. She has spent more than a decade working as a consultant, community contact and facilitator for federal, local and municipal projects in central Mexico.