Prisons are the new residential schools. CHIPPEWAR draws our attention to the over incarceration rates of Indigenous peoples, specifically Indigenous women and youth and how this system is fracturing families. Systemic racism occurs throughout the criminal justice system. In the courts, sentencing, policing, corrections and more. Indigenous women and youth receive longer sentences than their non indigenous counterparts for the same crimes. Women are life givers, sustainers, and the backbone of all peoples. Indigenous women are water protectors, healers, matriarchs, and are the heart of our communities. The youth are our future generation’s leaders and knowledge carriers. Without both all communities are lost. The justice system is ill prepared to engage with Indigenous peoples, and only rarely does it work from a trauma informed perspective. It continues to uphold the values of settler colonialism and prejudice against Indigenous peoples. The United Nations defines this as genocide.
