Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In Canada, a dearth of research exists on Indigenous women's health and their participation in the natural resource development sector's decision-making processes leading to the question: What barriers do Indigenous women face in negotiating their health concerns in the mining sector's impact benefit agreement (IBA)? When a mining company enters a community, Indigenous women's experience of declining health is well documented by scholars, non-profit organizations, and Indigenous activists. Water contamination, drug use, violence against women and their children increases in the community resulting in women being disproportionality and affected differently by the negative impacts of mining. In short, the health impacts of mining are not gender neutral. However, scant research exists on whether these health impacts and women's health concerns are taken into account in an IBA. In the Canadian mining sector and globally, the IBA is the dominant instrument that structures the relationship between the company and the Indigenous community. The purpose of this private contract is to take into account the impacts and benefits of the development project upon the community, and to obtain consent from the First Nation to gain access to the resources. However, the confidential nature of the IBA and the dominance of the agreement in the sector highlights the pressing need to understand how Indigenous women and their health concerns are taken into account in an IBA negotiation, and the final agreement. This interdisciplinary research project builds on my doctoral research on the governance of drinking water in Canadian provinces, and expands into the area of Indigenous women's health. A finding from my doctoral research is that Indigenous women were absent in the governance process resulting in Indigenous women's health underreported. This current research expands upon the collaborative research completed during my doctoral studies on women's health with the NNEWH.