Preventative Education for Indigenous Girls Vulnerable to the Sex Trade
Abstract
Indigenous women in Canada are drastically overrepresented in the sex trade (Cler-Cunningham & Christensen, 2001; NWAC, 2014; Saewyc, MacKay, Anderson & Drozda; Sethi, 2005; Totten, 2009), while the phenomenon is simultaneously overlooked in academia. This dissertation investigated the potential of formal education systems in preventative education for Indigenous girls vulnerable to the sex trade. Five Indigenous sex trade survivors and nineteen service providers from a partner organization in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, participated in individual unstructured interviews to collaborate in unearthing the life experiences creating vulnerability, methods of recruitment, and preventative education recommendations. The case study methods of this dissertation are steeped in the principles of Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies (1999). Based on interviews, organizational documents, and scant academic literature, the life experiences creating vulnerability to the sex trade for Indigenous girls were found to be: sexual abuse, transition from reserves, prison systems, violentization, substance abuse, family disorganization/out of home placements, family in the sex trade, poverty, and poor relationship with services. Indigenous girls are recruited into the sex trade by: gang recruitment, boyfriends, female recruitment, family recruitment, meeting basic needs, substance abuse, social media, and reserve recruitment. Prevention education will be targeted to Indigenous girls from 7-13 years old in on-reserve schools. A combination of teachers, female community members, elders, role models, and service providers could teach preventative education using love, engagement, patience, and understanding. Entire families should be included in the education process as much as possible, which should apply local cultural education and ways of knowing as much as possible.
Description
Keywords
Education--Social Sciences
Citation
Louie, D. (2016). Preventative Education for Indigenous Girls Vulnerable to the Sex Trade (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27426