Robyn Bourgeois is a mixed-race Cree activist, academic, author, and educator. She currently resides in

Haudenosaunee The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Anishinabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi ...

, and Huron-Wendat territory in Canada.

Education

Bourgeois received her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology in 2002 from

Okanagan University College Okanagan University College (OUC) was a public, post-secondary educational institution (c. 1990 to 30 June 2005) based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. It evolved from Okanagan College (1965 to c. 1990), and the college's predecessor, the B ...

. She then, studied at UBC-Okanangan, where she received her Master's Degree in Sociology in 2004. She received her Doctorate of Social Justice Education from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

in 2014. While studying at UBC-Okanaagan, Bourgeois became involved with activism relating to missing and murdered indigenous women and human trafficking.

Career

Bourgeois is an associate professor at the Centre for Women's and Gender studies at

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...

in St. Catharines,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Her scholarly work at the university includes Indigenous feminism, violence against Indigenous women and girls, Canadian colonial history and governance, as well as Indigenous women's political activism and leadership. Her work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Canadian Women Studies, and

UCLA Law Review The ''UCLA Law Review'' is a bimonthly law review established in 1953 and published by students of the UCLA School of Law, where it also sponsors an annual symposium. Membership is decided based on performance on a write-on competition. The edi ...

. In 2014, Bourgeois was critical of the

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

's National Operational Review on missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, arguing that it misses a number of issues including colonialism, racism, and police accountability as causes of the violence epidemic affecting Indigenous women and girls. In October 2018, Bourgeois testified for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which was established in September 2016 by

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 20 ...

. The National Inquiry looks into potential causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Bourgeois has criticized government inquiries in the past, stating that the initiative allows “the Canadian state to appear that it is doing something without ever having to actually do anything,” but decided to contribute in order to “speak for other trafficked and exploited women." During her talk, she discussed her own experience as a sexual assault survivor and the impact of

settler colonialism Settler colonialism is a structure that perpetuates the elimination of Indigenous people and cultures to replace them with a settler society. Some, but not all, scholars argue that settler colonialism is inherently genocidal. It may be enacted ...

on people's perception of Indigenous women. Bourgeois cited Disney's Pocahontas and

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

's Tiger Lilly as examples, with each showcasing Indigenous women as sexual object that are prone to settler violence. In 2019, Robyn Bourgeois was featured in the documentary, Daughters, directed by Riayn Spaero. The film discusses sex trafficking, murder, and sex assault facing Indigenous women in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

. In April 2020, Bourgeois published an online article entitled: Let’s call the Nova Scotia mass shooting what it is: White male terrorism". In it, she alleges that mass murders are not due to mental defects, but the result of perpetrators being "white" and "male". In October 2020, Dr. Bourgeois was appointed acting vice-provost, Indigenous engagement for Brock University.

Publications

* Deceptive Inclusion: The 2010 Vancouver Olympic, 2009 * Warrior Women, 2014 * Huffington Post Blog on RCMP Report, 2014 * Colonial Exploitation, 2015 * Indigenous Women’s Writing and the Cultural Study of Law, 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgeois, Robyn First Nations women writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian indigenous women academics 21st-century First Nations writers Cree people First Nations academics Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement 21st-century Canadian women writers