Women and sexual health

Aboriginal Nurse, The, 2002

In Aboriginal teachings, passed on through the oral histories of the Aboriginal people from generation to generation, Aboriginal men and women were equal in power and each had autonomy within their personal lives.

Be sure to read Part 1 before working on this unit. See these other units for more issues related to women and sexual health:

Unit 8 - Birth Control and Pregnancy Options

Unit 9 - Healthy Pregnancies

Unit 10 - Birth

Unit 11 - The Residential School Experience

Unit 13 - Menopause

Unit 14 - Two-Spirit People and Sexual Diversity

Unit 15 - Family Violence

Unit 16 - Sexual Violence

Unit 17 - HIV/AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections

Unit 18 - Reproductive Cancers

Introduction

Aboriginal women have always been recognized as the keepers of the traditional ways and caregivers.1

What does it mean to be a First Nations, Inuit or Metis woman today? It is a time of hope and joy, pain and struggle. Hope and joy as more and more of us practise our traditions and find strength and courage in family members, friends and communities. However, it is also a time of pain and struggle as we deal with negative stereotypes about Aboriginal women and our sexuality, the violence in many of our lives, HIV/AIDS, addictions, and breast and cervical cancers. This is a time to re-learn and reclaim our sexuality according to what it means to us as Aboriginal women, not according to European ideas and restrictions. Sexual health is much more than having healthy sexual organs. It involves the whole person: body, emotions, mind and spirit. We express our sexuality through affection, love and intimacy in ways that are influenced by things such as culture, family and religion. Feeling good about ourselves, and the people we love, is important to good health and healthy sexuality. Good sexual health contributes to overall personal well-being, and in turn helps build stronger families, communities and nations.

Many of our traditional cultures consider sexuality a gift from the Creator. It should be the source of great pleasure. There are many ideas we need to challenge and many situations we need to change to get back to that place. For example, the description of a traditional celebration, "Ceremony for Becoming a Woman" (p. 117), illustrates how ceremony and celebration can make a young girl's first period an event for joy and pride rather than fear and shame.

Similarly, older women traditionally were valued for their knowledge and wisdom, and consulted about important events such as birth, coming to adulthood, marriage, childbirth and menopause.

Cultural Teachings

In Aboriginal teachings, passed on through the oral histories of the Aboriginal people from generation to generation, Aboriginal men and women were equal in power and each had autonomy within their personal lives.

Women figured centrally in almost all Aboriginal creation legends. In Ojibway and Cree legends, it was a woman who came to earth through a hole in the sky to care for the earth. It was a woman, Nokomis (grandmother), who taught Original Man (Anishnabe, an Ojibway word meaning "human being") about the medicines of the earth and about technology. When a traditional Ojibway person prays, thanks is given and the pipe is raised in each of the four directions, then to Mother Earth as well as to Grandfather, Mishomis, in the sky.

To the Ojibway, the earth is woman, the Mother of the people, and her hair, the sweetgrass, is braided and used in ceremonies. The Dakota and Lakota (Sioux) people of Manitoba and the Dakotas tell how a woman - White Buffalo Calf Woman - brought the pipe to their people. It is through the pipe that prayer is carried by its smoke upwards to the Creator in their most sacred ceremonies.

Sexual Health Issues Identified by Aboriginal Women

Below are some key issues to address and ways that health care providers and others can support Aboriginal women and help us to improve our sexual health.

Talk to Each Other

The most important thing that we can do right now is to begin to talk openly and positively about our sexual health issues and concerns. We need to talk to each other, to our partners, our children, our parents, and to health care providers and Aboriginal leaders.

Improve Services

Many factors - open and not-so-open racism, cultural insensitivity, living in areas where there are few services or in small communities where there is less privacy -- can affect whether an Aboriginal woman gets the sexual and reproductive health care she needs. Women's groups, health services, health care providers and advocacy organizations, can work toward better sexual health education; violence prevention and help for those living with violence; birth control counselling and methods; protection from sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy options counselling, including abortion; prenatal care; family-centred birth; and menopause support and information.

Women Who Are Poor and Have Little Power

Aboriginal women who are poor and "marginalized" (they aren't considered important and aren't listened to, and they have little power in society) are more at risk of developing health problems with their sexual organs. The sexual health problems of Aboriginal women who live in large cities and are without the love and support of friends and family members are especially severe? To improve our sexual health, all Aboriginal women want and deserve better access to the right kind of women's health programs and services, and to family and community support. We must listen to what Mis, First Nations and Inuit women say they need, and we must work hard to reduce barriers to good health.