Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Presenter: Pamela Cruz

Co-Presenter(s):
Sophia Gravitch

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Bryan Burton

Department: Hutchins School of Liberal Studies

Funding Source/Sponsor: McNair

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1BP3f1jn_-9m-hHiABVgUENXO_8reUAvX

Abstract:
Women and girls experience violence at a rate much higher than what is reported. However, historically women have been invisible in the justice system and other institutions of social control. Even though a small portion of women’s victimization is acknowledged, this acknowledgment is not evenly distributed across all women. Some women’s pain, suffering, or lives seem to matter less than others. For example, women of color and to be more specific, Indigenous women have also been invisibilized in the public sphere by formal and informal institutions: their plight rarely receives media coverage, their victimizations are not subjects of collective concern, even their ethnic identity is sometimes whitewashed or dismissed. Our presentation problematizes this invisibility by highlighting the MMIW and joining its cause. MMIW is a movement meant to raise awareness on the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. MMIW is not being talked about and knowing the names of these women and talking about this is an important first step to begin to make them visible. In our presentation, we will be discussing what MMIW does and what it is in more depth. We will talk about some of the women who have gone missing and the importance in never forgetting who they were.