We are more than murdered and missing | Tamara Bernard | TEDxThunderBay

With a talk that encourages hope, love, empowerment and igniting a new way of learning together as a nation, Tamara Bernard lays bare the world of violence impacting indigenous women in Canada. Personally connected to her topic through her great-grandmother, she speaks out about indigenous women, giving a voice to the voiceless.

Wearing a high heel on one foot and a moccasin on the other, she asks us to view things through her lens, where indigenous women are more than just murdered and missing. Much more.

Tamara is pursuing her masters degree in education at Lakehead University.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

There are so many
important women in my life.

Some of these women are family members,
friends, colleagues.

I am certain that every single person
in this audience today

has a woman that they love dearly.

Could be their mother,

their daughter,

their sister,

their grandmother, even a colleague.

Maybe you're smiling right now
because you're thinking about them.

Maybe that smile changed into a chuckle

because you remember a fond memory
that you have with them.

Do you feel that right now?

All of us are reflecting on love,

that love when we close our eyes,

when that Sun hits our face

and it warms our head
all the way through our body.

I encourage you all
to hold onto that today

because that's what
we're going to talk about.

We're going talk about
what is missing in society today.

There is a lack of love and respect

for our murdered and missing
indigenous women and girls in Canada.

I am not saying that there is not love.

I am not saying there's opposite emotions
of love towards these women,

but it can be greater, much greater.

I am hoping today

[that] the love that
we've just built together

by reflecting on the women and girls
that we love in our lives

will encourage you to see
through a new lens in light

how beautiful these women are.

The beautiful truth, the hidden reality.

But first, Boozhoo, Aanii,
Tamara, an Indigenous girl

from Bear clan from Gull Bay First Nation.

I am an indigenous woman
that currently is challenged every day,

living with the intergenerational trauma
of the Canadian residential school legacy

and as well as one of my family members

being taken and listed
with their stolen sisters.

I share this because I live
in this fast-paced society

that is so disconnected to the land,

very academically focused,

very career driven,

and I'm walking it

wearing a moccasin on one foot
and a high heel on the other,

doing my best to maintain a balance.

So today when I'm speaking with you,

I hope you can see how two worldviews
are being weaved together

to show the beautiful resiliency
and strength of indigenous women and girls

living here in the physical world
and in the spiritual world.

I want to share that I use
the term "indigenous"

to acknowledge all the women and girls
that are status and non-status.

This is very important

because the representation

that we're using today
in our Canadian society

for our stolen sisters

is based on a statistic of status women

that are First Nation, Inuit or Métis.

We need to acknowledge
a part of honouring them

is the history of [dis]enfranchisement,

where an indigenous woman
when she married a non-status man

lost her status and Aboriginal rights
along with their children.

We also need to acknowledge
the Sixties Scoop,

from 1960s until the '80s,

where indigenous children were taken away
from their families and communities,

and brought into foster care and adoption.

They also lost their status
and Aboriginal rights.

I'm sharing this

because there's hundreds
of indigenous people in our nation

who are fighting for their identity
and their Aboriginal rights

and to regain their culture
and family ties.

And I want you guys to reflect upon [this]

because they could be very visible
as an indigenous person,

and statistically speaking,

an indigenous woman has higher chances
of being a target of violence

compared to to a non-indigenous
person in Canada.

When a visible indigenous person
who does not have their "status"

go murdered or missing,

they're not acknowledged
in that representation;

they go into a different category.

My hope here is to honour
all of these women

and to show

how controlled the actual culture
and the representation of these women are.

Part of the culture is,
that I'm sharing with you today,

and I'm going to share
that culture is a trend,

and I'm going to share it,
that I'm going to say

that it's, perhaps unintentionally,
this is happening in our country.

But the culture of these women

in research and in educational textbooks,
the media and other publications,

unintentionally perhaps,

are focusing on these women as ...

sex workers,

runaways,

homeless,

substance abusers.

This predominantly happens
in British Columbia.

With that type of culture

that we continue to use
and educate our youth,

our future seven generations,

by dishonouring
our past seven generations,

Where does that lead us to?

I'm hoping

that you will see
how this culture of these women

reinforce the idea that it's okay
to have a lack of moral panic,

and I'm saying that because that culture
puts the blame back on the women.

They're to blame.

And when I speak about moral panic,
I am not saying we don't have it,

but I'm saying
that it could be much larger,

just like the love,
and it starts with love.

When I say it could be much larger,

I'm talking about a moral panic

that is not in just indigenous
families and communities

or in organizations or agencies
led by indigenous peoples.

I'm talking about a greater moral panic

that is for both nations -
indigenous, non-indigenous -

to unify together, empower one another

and feel that same fear,

that fear that something we love,
our livelihood, our safety

is being taken.

It is a common, living, moral panic.

When it's common, it becomes
a common goal to solve it,

becomes a common action together.

Together, we unite, empower,

and that's part of the healing steps
that need to come forth.

I've shared now the culture,

the misrepresentation in the statistics,

and I shared earlier

that we lived, my family lives
with the legacy of someone being taken.

So tonight, I am honouring
my family's case,

but I'm honouring all women

in the spiritual world
and on the physical world.

My great-grandmother,
Jane Bernard, and Doreen Hardy

were taken in 1966,

right here in the Thunder Bay district,

and it's a cold case to this day.

Now, we remember the culture?

Jane,

she was 43 years old.

Doreen,

she was 18.

They were not sex workers.

They were not homeless.

They were not substance abusers or users.

They were not runaways

and they were not in British Columbia.

And more importantly,

this happened in 1966,

where as statistics that we use
for all our research and education

use a representation from 1980 to 2012.

So - and they are status.

I'm sharing this to hope
for you guys to shift a little and see,

What are we educating our society?

Because we use that education
to guide our research,

use the research that comes out
to guide our media.

Because this type of representation

not only dishonours the women
in the spiritual world,

but it dishonours
the indigenous women and girls

here in the physical world as well.

I say that because with the lack
of moral panic in that culture,

it begins to question,

What is my self worth?

Am I worthy of justice?

Is my life as equal as a person
who is not indigenous?

Am I worthy to find out,
Why does this keep happening?

So as I shared earlier,

you know, my great-grandmother Jane,

she's listed with
the murdered and missing,

and then there's my grandma Irene,
who is a survivor of violence,

and there's my mother, Christian,
who is a survivor of violence,

and then there's me, Tamara,
a survivor of violence.

That's a lot of energy, a lot of healing,

a lot of questioning of my self-worth.

And then you see this in the media
and in education as well, coming at you.

It took me eight years and counting

to say, "I am worthy of love.

I am worthy to be loved."

This is important because ...

so many indigenous women
and youth that I've worked with

question their self-worth every day.

Every day is a challenge.

Every day is an obstacle -

to live in our society,

to wonder if they're going to be safe
or if their children are going to be safe.

Their stories echo,

much like my family echoes.

But you know what else?

We are more.

We're so much more.

We are more than murdered and missing.

We are language.

We are medicine.

We are land.

We are culture.

We are life givers.

We are so much more
than murdered and missing.

I hope today

that you think when you see

our sisters in the media,
our publications, our research

that you reflect upon
how we are more than that

and how the hidden reality,
the beauty of us, is more.

How our voice is more,
our stories are more.

To create that shift within society
that needs and that starts with love,

to generate that moral
panic that is needed

to honour the past seven generations

and the future seven generations.

Because if we don't make that shift,

I'm scared to know
where our humanity is going.

I am scared to see where we're going
to lead our research and our education.

I hope today you truly leave

with not only my voice

but the hundreds of voices
that I carry with me every day

by working with these women and youth.

I hope that we could ignite a new way
of learning, doing, being.

Because I am Tamara Bernard,

and I am more than murdered and missing.

(Ojibwe) Thank you.

(Applause)