The Tobique Women’s Group
The Tobique women, from a reserve in the northern wilderness of New Brunswick, formed in the mid-70’s, initially to improve local living conditions for women and children. Pain, anger and compassion were the motivating forces which drove the Tobique women to take drastic actions at considerable personal risk. These strong women have survived hard times and overcome tremendous odds to regain their Indian birthrights. In so doing, this relatively small group of native women from one reserve in the hinterland of New Brunswick, have influenced the course of Native history in Canada.
A bit of backstory: Since 1876 the Indian Act has held Indian reserve land in trust and regulates virtually all aspects of reserve life, including band politics, and defining who is legally Indian. The Indian Act gave Indian men sole ownership of property, hence if a marriage split up, the husband kept the house and the ex-wife & children had to crowd in with relatives or live in condemned houses or tents. If a native woman married a non-status man, she and their children lost their Indian status, even if she subsequently widowed or divorced. This meant losing their band membership, voting, medical, educational, property, inheritance, residency and burial rights. In direct contrast, an Indian man bestowed his Indian status on his white wife and children.
In June of 1985 the Canadian Parliament passed a bill which ended over 100 years of legislated sexual discrimination against Native Indian women.
This came after a long struggle, partly led by the Tobique women’s group. After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1973 that the Indian Act was EXEMPT from the Canadian Bill of Rights, the women took the case of Sandra Lovelace to the United Nations, which ruled in 1981 that Canada was in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Tobique women’s group occupied the local band office for nearly four months in the mid-70’s. They attempted to get justice from Indian Affairs, unsuccessfully. They organized the 100-mile Native Women’s Walk between Oka Reserve and Ottawa, to raise national awareness. There were four more years of lobbying in Canada between the UN decision and the changing of the Indian Act by the federal government in 1985.
BET-TE PAUL
“We didn’t come from a male-dominated society. It was matrilineal. It’s been mostly the women who are the strongest here. Like the men’s reaction when we first started out protesting ~ their reaction was shock that women had the gall to stand up and say, “This is wrong,” when the men themselves didn’t, yet they knew it was wrong, too. I think in that way it humiliated them, and that is why they got so angry with us at first. But how long can you let something that is wrong continue?”
MAVIS GOERES
“We’ve had a long, hard struggle. I think what kept us going was our heritage and sticking together. Maybe we didn’t have all the same ideas, but we all had the one main goal in mind: equality for the women. We’re just as good as the men. We all knew that no government agency ~ be it white or be it Indian ~ was going to tell us we were no longer Indian, when we KNOW we are Indian.”
Additional members of the Tobique Women's Group
LILY HARRIS
IDA PAUL
EVA SAULIS
JOYCE SAPPIER
JUANITA PERLEY
SHIRLEY BEAR
GLENNA PERLEY
CAROLINE ENNIS
SANDRA LOVELACE SAPPIER
KAREN PERLEY
CHERYL BEAR
Information and quotes from the book, Enough is Enough, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, as told to Janet Silman ©1987. This book is available in the Comox Valley Red Tent Book Lending Library.
A bit of backstory: Since 1876 the Indian Act has held Indian reserve land in trust and regulates virtually all aspects of reserve life, including band politics, and defining who is legally Indian. The Indian Act gave Indian men sole ownership of property, hence if a marriage split up, the husband kept the house and the ex-wife & children had to crowd in with relatives or live in condemned houses or tents. If a native woman married a non-status man, she and their children lost their Indian status, even if she subsequently widowed or divorced. This meant losing their band membership, voting, medical, educational, property, inheritance, residency and burial rights. In direct contrast, an Indian man bestowed his Indian status on his white wife and children.
In June of 1985 the Canadian Parliament passed a bill which ended over 100 years of legislated sexual discrimination against Native Indian women.
This came after a long struggle, partly led by the Tobique women’s group. After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1973 that the Indian Act was EXEMPT from the Canadian Bill of Rights, the women took the case of Sandra Lovelace to the United Nations, which ruled in 1981 that Canada was in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Tobique women’s group occupied the local band office for nearly four months in the mid-70’s. They attempted to get justice from Indian Affairs, unsuccessfully. They organized the 100-mile Native Women’s Walk between Oka Reserve and Ottawa, to raise national awareness. There were four more years of lobbying in Canada between the UN decision and the changing of the Indian Act by the federal government in 1985.
BET-TE PAUL
“We didn’t come from a male-dominated society. It was matrilineal. It’s been mostly the women who are the strongest here. Like the men’s reaction when we first started out protesting ~ their reaction was shock that women had the gall to stand up and say, “This is wrong,” when the men themselves didn’t, yet they knew it was wrong, too. I think in that way it humiliated them, and that is why they got so angry with us at first. But how long can you let something that is wrong continue?”
MAVIS GOERES
“We’ve had a long, hard struggle. I think what kept us going was our heritage and sticking together. Maybe we didn’t have all the same ideas, but we all had the one main goal in mind: equality for the women. We’re just as good as the men. We all knew that no government agency ~ be it white or be it Indian ~ was going to tell us we were no longer Indian, when we KNOW we are Indian.”
Additional members of the Tobique Women's Group
LILY HARRIS
IDA PAUL
EVA SAULIS
JOYCE SAPPIER
JUANITA PERLEY
SHIRLEY BEAR
GLENNA PERLEY
CAROLINE ENNIS
SANDRA LOVELACE SAPPIER
KAREN PERLEY
CHERYL BEAR
Information and quotes from the book, Enough is Enough, Aboriginal Women Speak Out, as told to Janet Silman ©1987. This book is available in the Comox Valley Red Tent Book Lending Library.