User:Anniedyas/Environmental Racism

Environmental racism affects particularly women and especially Indigenous women and  women of colour. Many of these communities reside in rural areas and are attractive to extractive industries. These effects not only pollute the environment but also have detrimental effects on both physical and mental health. Many of these extractive industries such as oil and gas and mining have caused pollution to water sources, food sources as well as…… This has started to affect people's bodies, especially those of women. This is because the toxins and poisons from extractive industries affect women’s reproductive organs as well as the health of their children. The harms of this activity last through generations in these communities, for example in the Indigenous community of Grassy Narrows in Northern Ontario, they are still dealing with health effects from high mercury levels that have affected drinking water and fish in the region. It is not just the pollution that affects women but also social changes that extractive industries bring. For example in small communities that have extractive industries the rate of domestic violence is significantly higher due to the fact that there is an influx of single men that arrive in the community. This overall can create toxic home lives that can lead to substance abuse as a coping mechanism, which also creates more fatalities and abuse. These worker camps have also contributed to the disproportionate amount of missing and murdered Indigenous women across North America. These effets also dipropotionatley effect transgender, Two-Spirit and other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Resistance: There have been many resistance movements in Canada initiated by Indigenous women against environmental racism. These include: The Native Women’s Association of Canada’s (NWAC) Sisters in Spirit Initiative. This initiative aims to create reports on the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women in order to raise awareness and get government and civil society groups to take action. Though the Canadian federal government decided to defund the initiative in 2010, the NWAC continues to support women, Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Indigenous people in their fight to be heard. In other Indigenous resistance movements there is an emphasis on healing from trauma by focusing on spirituality and traditional practices in order to fight against the forces of patriarchy and racism that has caused environmental racism. Activists and Indigenous communities have also gone through official legal routes to voice their concerns such as discussing treaties, anti-human trafficking laws, anti- violence against women laws and UNDRIP.