b'CHANGING THE NARRATIVEONWAs groundbreaking 1989 report on family violence continues to play a pivotal role in helping Indigenous women change the narrative T When services were available, they were not culturally inclusive. he Ontario Native Womens Association released Breaking Free: A Proposal for Change to Aboriginal FamilyTo make matters worse, gaps in the law left Indigenous women Violence at a time when Indigenous family violenceunprotected. By exposing the severity of the issues, Breaking Free was gravely misunderstood in Canada. Canadianoffered necessary proposals of action that would lead in efforts feminists had brought the issue of violence against women totowards healthier families and flourishing future generations. national attention, but the voices of Indigenous women were left out in the cold.After ONWAs incorporation, cultural events and gatherings were hosted to identify the services that Indigenous women needed. In the 1980s, ONWA decided it was time for Indigenous womenOne of the issues raised was that Indigenous women were experi-to be included in the talks on solutions to their problems. Breakingencing violence and abuse with little support.1 An Indigenous Free, released in 1989, was the first report in Northwestern Ontariowoman escaping violence would have to travel far from home to focus on Indigenous family violence, and it represented the firstfor protection. Violence was so prevalent that those who didnt time that the extent of Indigenous family violence was realized.experience it apathetically turned their backs.2 Later confirmed in ONWAs 1980 Exploratory Research Report, over 50 per cent of A shocking finding to many, the report revealed that 80 per centIndigenous families were single-parent families and were living off of Indigenous women personally experienced abuse or assaults.reserve. ONWA believed this was because of family violence.3In comparison, only 10 per cent of women in Canada experi-enced violence. For Indigenous families, violence wasnt just anNon-Indigenous women in the provinces experienced far more occasional problem that a few families faced. Family violence wasprotection from domestic abuse. A court could temporarily grant a known by most Indigenous peoples to occur on a regular basis inwoman the ability to live in the family home, free from her abuser. their communities.However, while ONWA was trying to support women who had fled their homes and communities, the Supreme Court of Canada Despite the extent of the violence that Indigenous peoples experi- decided that provincial family laws protecting women do not apply enced, services were hard to come by for Indigenous women.on Indian reserves. 1Nancy Janovicek, Assisting our own: Urban Migration, Self-Governance, and Native Womens Organizing in Thunder Bay, Ontario, 1972-1989, American Indian Quarterly (Summer 2003) 548 at 554.2Ibid.3Ontario Native Womens Association, Breaking Free: A Proposal for Change to Aboriginal Family Violence at 2.Ontario Native Womens Association11'