Sovereignty and Women's Rights in Canada's First Nations

Here's an article about negotiations between the Canadian government and the First Nations to give aboriginal women the same property rights in divorce matters that non-aboriginal Canadian women already enjoy.

Provincial laws governing the fair division of assets when marriages fail do not apply on reserves and the federal Indian Act, which governs most aspects of reserve life, does not address the subject.

[Native Women's Association of Canada] president Beverley Jacobs said the absence of matrimonial property laws has created great hardship for aboriginal women, usually forcing them and their children to leave their reserves or move in with family members.

[Assembly of First Nations] National Chief Phil Fontaine said he expects real dialogue on the issue and emphasized that he's not prepared to accept pre-determined outcomes to the consultations.

Fontaine said whatever legal solutions are proposed "must respect our jurisdiction" and have the support of the aboriginal community.

This is a perfect example of the difficulties of being an Anthropology student or practioner in a modern Western nation such as the US or Canada. My American values of liberty and equality tell me that the aboriginal women deserve equality under the law, end of discussion. Anything less than total equality is just blatant discrimination. However, the anthropologist jumps to the defense of the cultural sovereignty of the First Nations.

The US and Canada have a history of shame in their dealings with the First Nations. Let's be blunt, we couldn't have been more effective in erradicating their culture if we tried (yeah, I know that some of you will say that we did, in fact try, but that's a discussion for another day). So now, in order to protect women (which is obviously a noble pursuit) we risk further erosion of the culture and sovereignty of the First Nations if Ottawa is too heavy handed in their negotitations.

The intersection of cultural autonomy and human rights is the place where the wars and conflicts of the next century will be fought. Although I have an infinitely higher regard for the First Nations of Canada than for some of the peoples of the Middle East, the intellectual parallels are there. The wars we are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are about the intersection of cultural autonomy and human rights.

I don't have any easy answers, but maybe we can work this out if we are actually honest about the source of the conflict.