In collaboration with The Indigenous Brew Crew, Do Better.Be Better, and in honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21st, we've created this session ale with artwork by Chief Lady Bird to raise funds and awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. Celebrating Sisters aim is to raise funds and awareness for the systemic and national crisis of violence against Indigenous Women.
- Indigenous women make up 16% of all female homicide victims, and 11% of missing women, even though Indigenous people make up 4.3% of the population of Canada.
- Current public data on MMIWG oversimplifies and underrepresents the scale of the issue, yet still demonstrates a complex and pervasive pattern of violence against Indigenous women and girls who are often targeted because of their gender and Indigenous identity.
- The 2014 RCMP Operational Overview notes that police recorded 1,017 incidents of Aboriginal female homicides between 1980 and 2012 and 164 missing Aboriginal female investigations dating back to 1952. There have been several reports indicating numbers are significantly higher.
- From 2001 to 2014 the average rate of homicides involving Indigenous female victims was 4x higher than that of homicides involving non-Indigenous female victims.
Prevention and awareness are both needed to properly address the social and economic inequalities that Indigenous Peoples are faced with that perpetuate violence against Indigenous women. Creating fair access to health care, education, healing and employment, for all Indigenous people, as well as more immediate actions to make Indigenous women safer are part of these prevention strategies. A greater social awareness and understanding of the issue of MMIW is also needed, so that we can build a national understanding that we all have a role in stopping this violence and inequality towards our Indigenous Communities.
50 cents from every can will be donated to "Families of Sisters in Spirit", a grassroots not-for-profit volunteer organization located on unceded Algonquin Territory and led by families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. This program arose out of the recognition that there has been far too little support for families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The Sisters in Spirit initiative has highlighted various systemic issues including the impunity of many of the perpetrators. Their study found that nearly half of the cases involving Indigenous women and girls remain unsolved and no charges have been laid in about 40% of the cases.
This is a sessionable and fruity ale with notes of lemon, stewed orange, fresh cut grass, bread dough and a hint of peach. 4% ABV, 25 IBU.
We acknowledge that Guelph is situated on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabek Peoples, specifically the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
Sources:
https://www.afn.ca/policy-sectors/mmiwg-end-violence/
https://news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/36005/outcomes-and-priorities-for-action-to-prevent-and-address-violence-against-indigenous-women-and-girls
https://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Fact_Sheet_Missing_and_Murdered_Aboriginal_Women_and_Girls.pdf
http://www.femicideincanada.ca/about/history/indigenous