Not a way to live

When I was researching the issue of First Nations women who are involved in prostitution, I felt a knot in my stomach. It seemed the more I read, the more I learned, the more questions I asked – the more the knot tightened.
Eventually the knot just sat there at the pit of my stomach and emitted this overwhelming sadness.
I almost stopped working on the story; it started to affect me too much.
What struck me the most as disturbing when I was reading these accounts of young First Nations prostitutes and also listening to the stories from some survivors was the common denominator in each case.
The term “common denominator” may make you think of pop quizzes in elementary school if you are familiar with math, as I vaguely am, but that’s not what I mean in this case. “Common” is something shared – “denominator” is something that is designated.
The common denominator in the lives of First Nations girls and boys who became prostitutes was a history of sexual abuse as children.
This abuse lead to behavioural problems, to runaways or being placed in group homes, to living on the street, and eventually to finding solace in the arms of the underground scene where bad things happen.
For the people I read about and spoke to, bad things came in the form of bad people taking advantage of their situations and naivety, and eventually benefiting from the prostitution of their bodies.
“It was easy cash,” one said to me. “It was like I was being groomed for this life.”
Groomed for a life of prostitution, yet she was only 12 when she started selling herself.
You may ask: where did she go wrong? Where did society go wrong?
What will become of these young people whose lives have been so devastated as children through sexual abuse that they wind up turning tricks with men who pay to prey on their bodies and souls?
In my discussions on this subject, especially on the potential for legalized brothels in Ontario next year, I have heard different sides of the story.
I have heard “prostitution is the oldest profession, it will always be here” so therefore why bother trying to eradicate it? Why not let these women sell themselves?
Two things immediately came to my mind when I heard that logic.
The first is that for the most part, they were not women but children when they started out prostituting. Underage prostitutes are rarely seen because, plain and simple, it is illegal. They are kept out of sight until they become “women.”
The second is that prostitution has not always been here.
By “here,” I mean here in this land that our Anishinaabe ancestors survived in.
This “oldest profession” was introduced through colonialism, as were things like alcohol (extremely detrimental to all peoples), misuse of tobacco, and greed to the point of trapping animals almost to extinction for their pelts, for profit.
Who was the easiest to target when it came to prostitution in colonial Canada? The only women available at the time, the First Nations women.
These women often had no choice but to use sex as a way to feed their families due to harsh winters, lack of supplies and shelter, and a diminished food supply – not to mention alcohol that changed the very face of Anishinaabe life, a life and culture that is slowly rebuilding to what it used to be prior to colonialism and imposed residential schools.
Prostitution may offer “easy cash” and that easy cash gets the bills paid but it does not last.
The damage it has done to the psyche of ex-street workers is very hard to repair. The damage done often leads to drug and alcohol abuse, to another cycle of mistreatment inflicted on young children.
A prostitute told me that “only the strong survive,” and in no way does prostitution make you stronger because being constantly subjected to unwanted sexual contact and emotional abuse destroys you.
You can become numb to abuse but what is life without emotion? What are you left with when all your hopes and dreams are numbed and you walk around as an empty shell void of all feeling?
Prostitution may be the oldest profession, but it was not a way to live for Anishinaabe people.
Our children need to know that.
It may seem hopeless to “give back” the concept that was introduced to us, the act of prostitution that touches the lives of so many First Nations people today, but we have to start trying.
Stop the cycle before it starts with a new generation of girls and boys – and help bring our brothers and sisters who are already in the cycle out.