Finding Dawn Film Analysis

Violence against Indigenous women has been perpetuated throughout history, beginning with settler colonization. White settlers used a process of violent eviction to claim the land as their own. This eviction was rationalized by the assumption that the land was either deserted or that the inhabitants needed to be saved and civilized (Razak 129). Sherene Razak’s concept “spatial segregation” refers to the geographical separation of the Indigenous people and settlers. The Indigenous people were confined to reserves which facilitated the colonizers ideology of segregating the colonizer and the colonized (Razak 129). “Spatial segregation,” a physical and geographical separation, prompted the mentality that Indigenous people are not a part of white

Dawn’s case is similar to many other missing Indigenous women’s cases; they are often neglected or not taken as seriously as a missing white or wealthy person’s case. Furthermore, Dawn’s experience in a foster home after losing her father greatly impacted her future, I argue that her life would have been drastically different if she had not experienced the horrific incidents that occurred while living with the foster family. Dawn, similar to many other Indigenous people who were placed in a foster home, was treated unfairly and unethically. Since Indigenous people are not considered to be as valuable as other Canadians, they are not treated equally. Moreover, Finding Dawn tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who was hitchhiking along Highway 16, British Columbia, (the Yellow Highway), she was missing for years before her body was found. Similar to the vast majority (all except one) of missing women along Highway 16, she is Indigneous. Contrary to most Indigenous missing person cases, her body was found; most Indigenous women because most of the bodies are not found, they are left missing and their families are left never knowing what happened to their loved ones. In addition, the radio host mentions that she would never drive along Highway 16,

Ravensong reminisces the tragedy caused by an influenza epidemic and emphasizes the different treatment of Indigenous people and white people. This influenza killed an excessive amount of Indigenous people, causing panic and sadness amongst their communities. Stacey, the main character, contemplates the impending loss of lives for her community as the influenza spreads. She theorizes that white people believe that their lives are not indispensable, in contrast to the Indigenous people (Maracle 26). Furthermore, Stacey responds to the white medical system’s neglect of her community and how the lack of understanding of what one loss means for the entire community. Stacey’s community appreciates all people for both their individual value and their maintenance of cultural wholeness. She highlights that only certain Indigenous people have the community’s cultural knowledge; if they were to die before passing along their information, the community would suffer. The white medical system’s neglect demonstrates a perpetuated violence created by the notion of “us” versus “Other.” Indigenous people are considered to be the “Other” because of their physical separation from the colonizer’s race. This neglect is only one of many acts of violence and unjustness perpetuated on Indigenous