Ep. 312: Reclaiming your power and place

Guest: Marion Buller, MMIWG Chief Commissioner

“Persistent and deliberate human and indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root causes behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirited people.”

This is stated in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The numbers are horrible: indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirited individuals are 12 times more likely to experience violence and seven times more likely to be murdered.

Chief Commissioner Marion Buller says, “The inquiry was gut wrenching. It was difficult to hear the stories of survivors. However, those stories needed to be told, they needed to be heard, and they needed to be recorded.” The final report contains the truths of more than 2,300 family members, survivors, experts and traditional knowledge keepers that were shared over the two-year mandate of the inquiry.

There are 231 calls for justice in the final report: calls for justice that are directed at all Canadians and at every level of government, for First Nations through to the federal government – calls for justice that some feel will go unheard. Buller disagrees. “The act of acknowledging and recording the truths of victims' families, survivors and others raises awareness and that [in] its very nature instigates change: change that takes time, but change that has already begun. One of the lessons I have learned working in the justice system is that real change has to happen at the grassroots.”

We invited MMIWG Chief Commissioner Marion Buller to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the path forward in reducing harm and violence afflicting indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirited people.