Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, International Women's Day has evolved since the women's rights movement of the '60s and '70s. Today, in 2023, we continue to celebrate the fight for gender equality, gender identity, our reproductive decisions, and the right to speak up and defend our emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, and financial wellbeing. We use our voices to say no to the bullying, the violence; no to the oppressive abuses against our right to decide, do, and say what is right for us, what is right for me. Being allowed to take responsibility for my life and my future and to support all who wish to do the same is my interpretation of this day.
As a settler, it is my honour, and duty, to support the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement that is working hard to bring attention and change to the systemic racism and colonialism that has oppressed Indigenous women and girls since the first Europeans set sail and still today, continues to traumatize individuals, their families, and our communities by the ongoing oppression of Indigenous female voices. Women have been held in high regard and honour in Indigenous cultures all over the world for their ability to create and sustain life. That is until the residential schools, the colonialism, bullying, and laterally violent systems that changed that and taught a different way of seeing and treating Indigenous women and girls.
We are doing our communities a huge disservice, missing out on actual solutions, by not listening to the contributions, suggestions, ideas, cultural knowledge and so much more, that Indigenous women hold simply because it does not fit into our colonial systems. On this day, we can commit to beginning a new dialogue with Indigenous women, one where we don’t give the answers or constrain the conversation; a dialogue held in safe spaces where we listen to the hard truth. Until we truly listen to the voices of Indigenous women, any conversation regarding reconciliation is pointless and really can only be called lip service.
And Mr. Speaker, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge a very strong Indigenous woman in my life, and that is my constituency assistant Maggie Mercredi who has done an amazing job in supporting me, and I am learning a lot from working with her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
