The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) remains significant across the world. Globally, Indigenous women and girls experience disproportionately higher rates of abduction, violence, exploitation, and murder.
In the United States, the Department of Justice reports Indigenous women and girls face murder rates more than 10 times the national average in some communities. However, it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls due to inconsistencies in reporting and data collection processes.
In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported that Indigenous women make up a disproportionate percentage of missing and murdered women in Canada. As a result, a national inquiry was launched in 2016 to examine the root causes of violence and make recommendations for action.
In Australia, Aboriginal women also face high rates of violence, including intimate partner violence, and are overrepresented in missing persons statistics. The Australian Institute of Criminology reported Aboriginal Australian women are more likely to be the victims of homicide compared to non-Aboriginal Australian women.
Further in Latin America, Indigenous women and girls in countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and Brazil are also disproportionately affected by violence and exploitation that include various threats, including human trafficking, sexual violence, and abduction. Particularly, the state of Oaxaca in Mexico where the numbers and occurrences of missing or abducted women is very high.
Finally, in Northern Europe (Sábmie), Sámi women and girls also experience violence, including domestic violence and colonial violence (Uttjek, 2018). A 2023 hate crimes report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) indicated Sámi were 1 % of these victims. Such hate crimes, can be categorized as colonial violence, including discrimination and marginalization, based on their Indigenous status.
The Indigenous Commission highlights the widespread nature of this issue, but it is important to note the lack of comprehensive data makes it difficult to fully grasp the extent of the problem regionally and globally. Social and economic disparities such as inadequate law enforcement responses, jurisdictional complexities within Indigenous communities, ongoing systemic issues such as poverty, racism, and inadequate resources allow these challenges to persist.
Action Steps:
Community-Led Solutions
Indigenous communities must continue to play a vital role in continuing to develop and implement solutions to address the MMIW regional and global crisis. This includes community-led initiatives focused on prevention, victim support services, cultural revitalization, and raising awareness within their own communities. These efforts must continue to raise Indigenous women from a position of vulnerability and exploitation to empowerment and equality. Each community must define empowerment and equality through their own ways of knowing to advance culturally relevant solution focused outcomes.
Funding Partners and Data Collection Best Practices
Indigenous communities cannot do this on their own and will need allied partners to address and solidify funding toward comprehensive data collection practices. In the United States for example, tribal governments have limited financial resources and may also contend with remote tribal lands that make emergency response times longer than normal and in many cases help arrives too late. In these instances, lives are lost.
Improving data collection and research on MMIW is essential for understanding the scope and underlying causes of the issue. Dedicated data bases to collect accurate data are essential in addressing this issue. These must include Indigenous identifiers in law enforcement and any missing persons records to ensure accuracy of Indigenous affiliation is documented. Movement toward a best practices model of data collection and storing of data is a priority.
Policy Changes and Community/Legislative Action
Our communities and Indigenous organizations must support and highlight policy changes and legislative actions. For example, in the United States, the 2013 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) included provisions to improve the response to crimes against Native American women, including increased tribal jurisdiction over non-Native offenders in certain cases. VAWA (2022) now includes “provisions recognizing and affirming Alaska Tribes’ inherent authority to exercise criminal and civil jurisdiction over all Indians present in their Villages and their courts’ full civil jurisdiction to issue and enforce protection orders in matters arising within the Village or otherwise within their authority”. Governments must respectfully engage with indigenous populations as requested at the federal, state/provincial, and tribal levels and co-develop to build the necessary scaffolding, such as establishing task forces, committees, and initiatives for prevention and intervention. These efforts involve collaboration between law enforcement agencies, government officials, tribal leaders, and community organizations.
Social Work Action
National associations of social work can also take further action. The IFSW Indigenous Commission recommends that IFSW member organisations, which opporate in places where indigenous people traditionally live, develop partnership strategies aimed at recognising indigenous rights. This can include supporting indigenous social workers to form self-supporting committees and structures within the national association or supporting indigenous social workers to form their own association. The IFSW Indigenous Committee is happy to advise and support IFSW members in their journey.
The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women has gained international attention, leading to increased collaboration and support from organizations and governments around the world. This global solidarity has helped elevate the voices of Indigenous communities and put pressure on governments to act, but more is needed. We are all part of this action. This action requires serious collaboration toward stronger data collection practices to prevent and intervene when even one of our Indigenous women and/or girls goes missing or is murdered. A strong collaboration with funders/funding sources will ensure justice for victims and their families.
International Federation of Social Workers-Indigenous Commission
References
National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC)
Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC)
Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (2023) retrieved from https://bra.se/bra-in-english/home/about-bra.html
Uttjek, M. (2018). Preventive Efforts to Address Violence Against Sámi Women and
Children. In: R. Henry, A. LaVallee, N. V. Styvendale, & R.A. Innes (Eds). Global Indigenous Health. Reconciling the Past, Engaging the Present, Animating the Future. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. Pp. 193-210.
https://www.justice.gov/tribal/2013-and-2022-reauthorizations-violence-against-women-act-