Violence against Aboriginal women also results from a society that has permitted the violence to occur. It is estimated that approximately 500 First Nation Women have been reported missing/murdered in Canada over the past 15 years with little or no media attention. There have been few arrests and most cases are non-active. How Canadian society values Aboriginal women drastically affects the incidence of violence against them.

A Canadian government statistic reveals that Indigenous women between the ages of 25 and 44, with status under the Indian Act, are five times more likely than all other women of the same age to die as the result of violence. Rooted in the violence are racist and sexist stereotypes that deny the dignity and worth of Aboriginal women, encouraging some men to feel they can get away with acts of hatred against them.

Violence is not only about the power of men over women it also comes from men’s own life experiences and fears. For some young men, the use of violence is a way of proving to themselves and those around them that they are “real men”. Raised by fathers who may have attended residential school or who do not know how to nurture or show affection, some young men grow up unable to feel what others feel, unable to be empathetic. If you do not feel what others feel, you are more likely to commit violence because you are not fully aware of the damage you are doing.

Many young men are taught to suppress their emotions. They have been taught that feelings make them weak and feminine. But feelings are a part of being human. When we try to suppress feelings, they often re-emerge in the form of aggression and violence.

Many young men grew up witnessing violence in the home or directly experiencing violence themselves. Although this leads some to refuse to use violence themselves, it has taught others that the use of force is acceptable in personal relations.

None of these factors are an excuse for individual acts of violence but by understanding these factors, we get closer to changing the conditions that create violence in the first place. All forms of racialized and sexualized violence against Aboriginal women must stop.

In communities where violence against women is common and considered “normal”, a woman who receives a beating from her spouse may be told by other women, you must have done something to deserve it”. In Aboriginal communities, it is very difficult to conceal a pattern of domestic abuse for very long. Families are large and people talk. News soon gets out. The question that must be asked is: “What happens when it becomes common knowledge in the community?”

Do extended family and community members intervene to stop the abuse?
Do the elected authorities, mental health workers and child protection workers intervene?
Are the police and the courts notified? Are they responsive?
Do the men of the community confront the abuser?
In short, what consequences do abusers face?

Research in the United States confirms that, “men most likely to re-offend [after completing a batterer’s intervention program] are those that have the least to lose...”
~ Bennet and Williams, 2001:3,6

In other words, if men stand to lose employment, family, home, status and freedom, they are less likely to re-offend than men who have none of these things to lose, or for whom there is little risk that offending will result in any loss. Consequences do matter.

There can be little doubt that one of the factors that determines the presence, extent and nature of violence against women is the belief systems and attitudes in the communities; specifically men’s attitudes and beliefs about women and about male privilege and sexism.

The extent to which violence towards women has been “normalized” and taken for granted as “the way it is” creates the psychological and social space where abuse can flourish.

“Male privilege” is the belief, enforced on his female victims, that a man has rights and privileges that are due to him simply because he is a man. The underlying assumption of male privilege is that women exist to gratify the needs of men, who are somehow superior beings, because they were born male.

Examples of exercising male privilege include:

• Insisting that she gives him sex whenever he wants it, no matter how she feels;
• Making her clean up after him (leaving a messy kitchen, bathroom, not picking up clothes, etc.);
• Making her fetch for him (“get me a drink”, “go to the store and buy me cigarettes”, etc.);
• Making decisions that impact her without consulting her, insisting on being the decision maker (on everything from which restaurant or house to choose, to which school the children will attend, where to live or whether or not to incur a debt);
• Expecting her to want what he wants when he wants;
• Making her do the nasty jobs (clean the toilet, warm up the freezing car, etc.);
• Demanding that she serves the food he wants, when he wants it;
• Requiring her to “act as if you want it” in the bedroom.