Understanding Gender-based Violence as Colonial Violence

Youth activist speaks on minimal education on 2SLGBTQ+ topics in Canada

By Daniel Itai

Toby Nashak, an Inuit transgender activist, has cited more light should be shed on 2SLGBTQ+ topics in Canada.

The young activist said the lasting impacts of colonialism, have made a lot of people to be closed minded.

"Before colonizers came into our lives, we saw these topics very differently than we do now. Specifically regarding two spirits, members of our communities who were highly valued and respected in their communities. Through colonialism, two spirit people were stigmatized and erased in favor of Western gender models rife with misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.

Residential schools played a major role in the attempted erasure of two spirit identities. Once the white man came and realized that we had many things that differed from their perfect image that they wanted to present, they started trying to stop it. Their attempt at a culture genocide is still seen today. Colonizers caused mountains and mountains of generational trauma and shame for our natural identities, imposing colonial ways of working that many of us are still trying to resist and dismantle today," said Toby.

In addition, Toby also said there was a huge correlation between colonization and Gender Based Violence (GBF) especially towards indigenous communities.

"There is a link between colonization and gender based violence towards indigenous communities. Indigenous women are four times more likely to be targeted for a hate crime than any other race of women. These statistics are much more horrifying when you take into account that indigenous women take up about four percent of the female Canadian population.

I strongly believe that these statistics should be taken into account when talking about gender based violence within Canada, as some of the most targeted populations are native. This is no coincidence. Indigenous communities should be much more protected and valued then they are today, especially when taking in that many missing persons reports for native people are rarely even investigated.

In conclusion, there should be much more education on indigenous activism. Native communities should be much more protected and valued. More leadership is needed to address gender-based violence and transphobia targeting Indigenous peoples and once we start acknowledging the major trauma that we endured, the more that we can heal as people," said Toby.

You can read Toby’s March 23, 2022 article here →

Toby’s blogs are featured on Wisdom2Action - a social enterprise and consulting firm supporting civil society organizations and governments to facilitate change and strengthen communities. Our work is driven by a dream of justice, health and safety for all communities across Canada.

Toby Nashak (he/it) is an Inuit transgender activist who is currently working on a lot of projects. Toby’s heritage is extremely important to them and is intertwined with many other things in their life.