Part 2:  Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues of Concern to Aboriginal People

Be sure to read Part 1 before working on this unit. See these other units for more issues related to women and sexual health:

Unit 8 — Birth Control and Pregnancy Options
Unit 9 — Healthy Pregnancies
Unit 10 — Birth
Unit 11 — The Residential School Experience
Unit 13 — Menopause
Unit 14 — Two-Spirit People and Sexual Diversity
Unit 15 — Family Violence
Unit 16 — Sexual Violence
Unit 17 — HIV/AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections
Unit 18 — Reproductive Cancers

Introduction

Aboriginal women have always been recognized as the keepers of the traditional ways and caregivers.¹ (click here for footnote)


What does it mean to be a First Nations, Inuit or Métis woman today? It is a time of hope and joy, pain and struggle. Hope and joy as more and more of us practise our traditions and find strength and courage in family members, friends and communities. However, it is also a time of pain and struggle as we deal with negative stereotypes about Aboriginal women and our sexuality, the violence in many of our lives, HIV/AIDS, addictions, and breast and cervical cancers.

This is a time to re-learn and reclaim our sexuality according to what it means to us as Aboriginal women, not according to European ideas and restrictions. Sexual health is much more than having healthy sexual organs. It involves the whole person: body, emotions, mind and spirit. We express our sexuality through affection, love and intimacy in ways that are influenced by things such as culture, family and religion. Feeling good about ourselves, and the people we love, is important to good health and healthy sexuality. Good sexual health contributes to overall personal well-being, and in turn helps build stronger families, communities and nations.

Many of our traditional cultures consider sexuality a gift from the Creator. It should be the source of great pleasure. There are many ideas we need to challenge and many situations we need to change to get back to that place. For example, the description of a traditional celebration, "Ceremony for Becoming a Woman", illustrates how ceremony and celebration can make a young girl’s first period an event for joy and pride rather than fear and shame.

Similarly, older women traditionally were valued for their knowledge and wisdom, and consulted about important events such as birth, coming to adulthood, marriage, childbirth and menopause.

Cultural Teachings

	In Aboriginal teachings, passed on through the oral histories of the Aboriginal people from generation to generation, Aboriginal men and women were equal in power and each had autonomy within their personal lives.
Women figured centrally in almost all Aboriginal creation legends. In Ojibway and Cree legends, it was a woman who came to earth through a hole in the sky to care for the earth. It was a woman, Nokomis (grandmother), who taught Original Man (Anishnabe, an Ojibway word meaning "human being") about the medicines of the earth and about technology. When a traditional Ojibway person prays, thanks is given and the pipe is raised in each of the four directions, then to Mother Earth as well as to Grandfather, Mishomis, in the sky.
To the Ojibway, the earth is woman, the Mother of the people, and her hair, the sweetgrass, is braided and used in ceremonies. The Dakota and Lakota (Sioux) people of Manitoba and the Dakotas tell how a woman — White Buffalo Calf Woman — brought the pipe to their people. It is through the pipe that prayer is carried by its smoke upwards to the Creator in their most sacred ceremonies.2 (click here for footnote)

Below are some key issues to address and ways that health care providers and others can support Aboriginal women and help us to improve our sexual health.

The most important thing that we can do right now is to begin to talk openly and positively about our sexual health issues and concerns. We need to talk to each other, to our partners, our children, our parents, and to health care providers and Aboriginal leaders.

Many factors — open and not-so-open racism, cultural insensitivity, living in areas where there are few services or in small communities where there is less privacy — can affect whether an Aboriginal woman gets the sexual and reproductive health care she needs. Women’s groups, health services, health care providers and advocacy organizations, can work toward better sexual health education; violence prevention and help for those living with violence; birth control counselling and methods; protection from sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy options counselling, including abortion; prenatal care; family-centred birth; and menopause support and information.

Women Who Are Poor and Have Little Power

Aboriginal women who are poor and "marginalized" (they aren’t considered important and aren’t listened to, and they have little power in society) are more at risk of developing health problems with their sexual organs. The sexual health problems of Aboriginal women who live in large cities and are without the love and support of friends and family members are especially severe.³ (click here for footnote)   To improve our sexual health, all Aboriginal women want and deserve better access to the right kind of women’s health programs and services, and to family and community support. We must listen to what Métis, First Nations and Inuit women say they need, and we must work hard to reduce barriers to good health.

[In traditional Inuit society] the wife had authority within the home where she enjoyed considerable autonomy. She was the primary childrearer although all members, particularly older girls, actively participated in raising the children. She was also responsible for virtually all domestic duties including the preparation of food, drinking water, cleaning and the making of clothes and boots. As well she was responsible for the making of tents, skin containers and the covering of the boat or kayak. The ideal wife was considered to be hard working, cheerful, generous, considerate, a good mother and did not gossip too much.⁴ (click here for footnote)

Some Ways to Support Aboriginal Women in Becoming More Sexually Healthy

• Recognize and honour women’s leadership in communities and families.
• Value motherhood as a meaningful community role.
• Develop age- and gender-specific services and programs that also reflect local values and culture.
• Develop culture-specific education on sexual health issues.
• Use healing circles to support Aboriginal women in understanding our traditions and provide a way for us to support each other.
• Support traditional beliefs, rituals and practices.
• Expand reproductive health services until all Aboriginal women, including those in remote and isolated communities, have access to services.
• Provide access to HIV screening and counselling.
• Make sure First Nations, Inuit and Métis women can make free choices about methods of birth control, sterilization, abortion, birth, etc.
• Develop clear, informed consent forms and policies.
• Promote positive attitudes toward menopause.
• Prevent and treat alcoholism, fetal alcohol syndrome/fetal alcohol effects and domestic violence.⁶ (click here for footnote)

Anishnabe teaching states good health is a gift from the creator and it comes with responsibility to care for it. Respect for ourselves and others is the foundation of this teaching. Good health is a balance of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements. If we neglect one we are out of balance and our health suffers. Because of this negative thought, poor eating habits, lack of exercise and not having a peaceful and harmonious relations with other people and the spiritual world will make us sick.7 (click here for footnote)

¹  Aboriginal Women’s Health Project Report, Native Physicians Association in Canada, Ottawa, 1995, p. 9.  (back to paragraph)

²  "Mending the Web of Community," Healing Words, 3(2) (Winter 2001): 5, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Ottawa. Available at: www.ahf.ca/english/documents.html   (back to paragraph)

³  Report of the Aboriginal Roundtable on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada, Ottawa, 1999.  (back to paragraph)

⁴  The Inuit Way: A Guide to Inuit Culture, Pauktuutit Inuit Women’s Association, Ottawa, no date, p. 12.  (back to paragraph)

⁵  As A Woman: A Wellness Manual and Workbook, Nechi Training, Research and Health Promotions Institute, Edmonton, 1997.  (back to paragraph)

⁶  Broken Treaties, Empty Promises: An Introduction to Native American Women’s Reproductive Health Issues, Native Women’s Education Resource Center, Lake Andes, South Dakota, 2000; Report on the Aboriginal Roundtable on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada, Ottawa, 1999; Aboriginal Women’s Health Report, Native Physicians Association in Canada, Ottawa, 1995.   (back to paragraph)

⁷  Quoted in Sharing Our Stories on Promoting Health and Community Healing: An Aboriginal Women’s Health Project, Connie Deiter and Linda Otway, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, Winnipeg, 2001, p. 10.   (back to paragraph)