Yet another murdered indigenous woman - studying this very issue

Darryl Leroux: [url=http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/honour-loretta/21987]In Honour of Loretta[/url]

I reread her thesis proposal last night and was reminded of how deeply she was aware of being a product of a Canadian society intent on destroying and eliminating indigenous peoples.

Leroux's tribute is worth quoting at length, perhaps the whole damn thing:

I refuse to speculate about Loretta’s death. What I do know is that our society has discarded indigenous women and girls in much the same manner for generations. These people were playing out a script that we all know intimately, but never acknowledge. I told a good friend of mine yesterday that there’s no conspiracy, there’s no mystery, Loretta will show up in a ditch like so many indigenous women before her. He was taken aback. I told him that's the pattern. 

It's our doing, which Loretta articulated so clearly in her writing -- theft of land base, legalized segregation and racism, residential schools for several generations, continued dispossession = social chaos.

It is a recipe for disaster for indigenous peoples, and especially indigenous women. Who suffers most when access to land, to the ecological order at the basis of most indigenous societies, is limited, controlled, or outright eliminated? Is that not what’s at the basis of a settler society like our own, eliminating indigenous peoples' relationship to the land (and/or their actual bodies), so that can we plunder it for our gain?

See also: A Gedenkschrift for Loretta Saunders

Her advisor Darryl Leroux, called her proposal:

 "… the most beautifully written and cared-for assignment I had ever read in seven years of university teaching, evaluating literally thousands of assignments."

 Leroux wrote to Saunders to tell her:

"You have the writing, researching and analytical skills of somebody who is on their way to receive a PhD. You can accomplish whatever you like academically. Our world needs more people like you Loretta; please keep reading and writing about whatever you’re most passionate about. I will do everything I can to support your efforts to become the intellectual and community leader you are meant to be."