I have only recently discovered Brandi Morin's writing in Indigenous Insider. What I like about her material is being able to view the world from the eyes of a woman who was born & lives in the Indigenous world. It is an entirely different view than you will ever get from a non-indigenous person talking about the same topic.
There are two sides to every story. This article needs to be read for the simple reason the information is viewed from who has been there.
I don't see two sides to this story, personally, no offence to the person who included those words in her comment. Even as an outsider, I have enough lived experience to know that some of the things I survived, I likely wouldn't have if I had been born with less privilege -- that was essentially an accident of birth from which I continue to benefit.
What can outsiders like myself do to help right the wrongs that are still being perpetuated and are even escalating? How can we stand in solidarity with you to help reverse this reality, so Indigenous people overall, and particularly females, are no longer living in a world in which they are so easily erased, including by those who are nominally providing protection?
Brandi, you are already doing an incredible job of shining a light on the many issues close to your heart and mine, but I'm not putting my actual body in danger the way you do. There must be more that I and others can do (beyond the bare minimum of maintaining a paid subscription), so if you have any suggestions, please consider offering them as time permits.
Calder, I came here to ask this very question. It’s not enough for me to respond “I stand with you”. I want to help, and at the same time, I don’t want my offer to offend, as though I know what’s best for my First Nations sisters (and brothers) because I truly don’t.
There really are no words. I will try a few. Although I have never worked with indigenous populations, I am a retired social worker, & I know that my profession has been a part of the incarceration genocide, despite being aware of the injustice & the long term impact, which almost makes it worse.. I have never thought of it as genocide before...the foster care system through to adult prisons, but of course you are right. As a society we should feel the shame, but of course instead we avert our eyes & our hearts.
You have a strong passionate yet rational voice. Please don't give up. There are too many little 13 year old girls who need to hear it.
I'm at a loss for words. How can a country so richly blessed with abundant resources allow this despicable state of affairs to continue.
Imho, indigenous communities need to band themselves together having their own governing body to fund ( from Federal & Provincial tax dollars) rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
My heart grieves for my First Nation brothers and sisters.
I will share this article with family and friends.
You ask how Canada can allow this to happen? It's the plan. It's always been the plan. It never stopped being the plan. In the words of John A MacDonald it was set in motion to "solve the Indian problem". The government and those in power are the ones that not only allow it, but make laws to see it carried out.
Believe me if I had the means I would definitely support but as an indigenous single Mother myself I’m barely getting by and as someone who has Euro-settler adopted parents now calling themselves “Americans” after I was STOLEN from my own bio family NOT abandoned or surrendered I’m in a constant battle with them over my own freedom from a day to day basis as they are constantly calling the all white police and DCF to support them in their own false narrative and completely LIE to all about me and therefore land me in jail at least a couple me of times!
This is not merely “overrepresentation”; it is the continuing criminalisation of Indigenous womanhood. Indigenous women comprise only a small fraction of Canada’s female population, yet they have reached approximately half of all federally incarcerated women. At the Edmonton Institution for Women, the proportion reportedly exceeds 72 percent, while Indigenous women account for nearly 70 percent of women classified as maximum security. Those figures expose a correctional system operating with a racial and colonial imbalance so extreme that it cannot credibly be dismissed as the product of individual choices alone.
The most recent Statistics Canada figure is 18.2 times, rather than 18.4: in 2023–24, Indigenous women were incarcerated at 18.2 times the rate of non-Indigenous women. That minor numerical correction does nothing to soften the reality. Canada has received decades of inquiries, court decisions, commissions and recommendations, yet the disparity continues to deepen. Poverty, displacement, childhood removal, domestic and sexual violence, homelessness, disability, addiction and intergenerational trauma are repeatedly treated as evidence that a woman is “high risk,” rather than evidence that governments and institutions have failed her. Once imprisoned, culturally biased classification systems can place Indigenous women in harsher security conditions, restricting their access to rehabilitation, healing lodges and earlier release.
Canada cannot speak convincingly about reconciliation while Indigenous women are being imprisoned on this scale. Reconciliation is not ceremony, symbolism or land acknowledgements delivered while the prison population tells an entirely different story. When one people are incarcerated at eighteen times the rate of another - and constitute most of the women in some institutions - the system is reproducing colonial control through courts, prisons and surveillance. These women are not statistics to be managed. They are mothers, daughters, grandmothers and survivors, and their mass incarceration should be recognised as a national human-rights emergency.
I am genuinely surprised to read this claim, and wonder if you could kindly describe how you arrived at this conclusion that Brandi is using AI to generate her articles? As a writer, I spend a lot of time filtering out AI, and almost always have my suspicions confirmed by an AI check.
None of Brandi’s articles have thrown up the usual red flags. Brandi has a distinct voice and cadence in her writing, which remains consistent across the hundred-plus articles I’ve read thus far.
Granted, some of her turns of phrase may become rote and repeated as she often treads similar ground multiple times (everything is connected!). Even so, those familiar word strings are, to me, consistent with her thematic and investigative emphases rather than giving a vibe of an AI-generated hallucination.
Again, genuinely curious how you’ve concluded this.
I have only recently discovered Brandi Morin's writing in Indigenous Insider. What I like about her material is being able to view the world from the eyes of a woman who was born & lives in the Indigenous world. It is an entirely different view than you will ever get from a non-indigenous person talking about the same topic.
There are two sides to every story. This article needs to be read for the simple reason the information is viewed from who has been there.
For me, an indigenous person is any one of First Nations heritage including Metis. Why do you ask?
I don't see two sides to this story, personally, no offence to the person who included those words in her comment. Even as an outsider, I have enough lived experience to know that some of the things I survived, I likely wouldn't have if I had been born with less privilege -- that was essentially an accident of birth from which I continue to benefit.
What can outsiders like myself do to help right the wrongs that are still being perpetuated and are even escalating? How can we stand in solidarity with you to help reverse this reality, so Indigenous people overall, and particularly females, are no longer living in a world in which they are so easily erased, including by those who are nominally providing protection?
Brandi, you are already doing an incredible job of shining a light on the many issues close to your heart and mine, but I'm not putting my actual body in danger the way you do. There must be more that I and others can do (beyond the bare minimum of maintaining a paid subscription), so if you have any suggestions, please consider offering them as time permits.
Calder, I came here to ask this very question. It’s not enough for me to respond “I stand with you”. I want to help, and at the same time, I don’t want my offer to offend, as though I know what’s best for my First Nations sisters (and brothers) because I truly don’t.
There really are no words. I will try a few. Although I have never worked with indigenous populations, I am a retired social worker, & I know that my profession has been a part of the incarceration genocide, despite being aware of the injustice & the long term impact, which almost makes it worse.. I have never thought of it as genocide before...the foster care system through to adult prisons, but of course you are right. As a society we should feel the shame, but of course instead we avert our eyes & our hearts.
You have a strong passionate yet rational voice. Please don't give up. There are too many little 13 year old girls who need to hear it.
I'm at a loss for words. How can a country so richly blessed with abundant resources allow this despicable state of affairs to continue.
Imho, indigenous communities need to band themselves together having their own governing body to fund ( from Federal & Provincial tax dollars) rehabilitation and reintegration programs.
My heart grieves for my First Nation brothers and sisters.
I will share this article with family and friends.
You ask how Canada can allow this to happen? It's the plan. It's always been the plan. It never stopped being the plan. In the words of John A MacDonald it was set in motion to "solve the Indian problem". The government and those in power are the ones that not only allow it, but make laws to see it carried out.
I for one am glad you made it out. The world needs to hear your voice
Believe me if I had the means I would definitely support but as an indigenous single Mother myself I’m barely getting by and as someone who has Euro-settler adopted parents now calling themselves “Americans” after I was STOLEN from my own bio family NOT abandoned or surrendered I’m in a constant battle with them over my own freedom from a day to day basis as they are constantly calling the all white police and DCF to support them in their own false narrative and completely LIE to all about me and therefore land me in jail at least a couple me of times!
This is not merely “overrepresentation”; it is the continuing criminalisation of Indigenous womanhood. Indigenous women comprise only a small fraction of Canada’s female population, yet they have reached approximately half of all federally incarcerated women. At the Edmonton Institution for Women, the proportion reportedly exceeds 72 percent, while Indigenous women account for nearly 70 percent of women classified as maximum security. Those figures expose a correctional system operating with a racial and colonial imbalance so extreme that it cannot credibly be dismissed as the product of individual choices alone.
The most recent Statistics Canada figure is 18.2 times, rather than 18.4: in 2023–24, Indigenous women were incarcerated at 18.2 times the rate of non-Indigenous women. That minor numerical correction does nothing to soften the reality. Canada has received decades of inquiries, court decisions, commissions and recommendations, yet the disparity continues to deepen. Poverty, displacement, childhood removal, domestic and sexual violence, homelessness, disability, addiction and intergenerational trauma are repeatedly treated as evidence that a woman is “high risk,” rather than evidence that governments and institutions have failed her. Once imprisoned, culturally biased classification systems can place Indigenous women in harsher security conditions, restricting their access to rehabilitation, healing lodges and earlier release.
Canada cannot speak convincingly about reconciliation while Indigenous women are being imprisoned on this scale. Reconciliation is not ceremony, symbolism or land acknowledgements delivered while the prison population tells an entirely different story. When one people are incarcerated at eighteen times the rate of another - and constitute most of the women in some institutions - the system is reproducing colonial control through courts, prisons and surveillance. These women are not statistics to be managed. They are mothers, daughters, grandmothers and survivors, and their mass incarceration should be recognised as a national human-rights emergency.
This is me and my writing. I’m a journalist. Sorry you can’t handle that I’m great at what I do!!
I am genuinely surprised to read this claim, and wonder if you could kindly describe how you arrived at this conclusion that Brandi is using AI to generate her articles? As a writer, I spend a lot of time filtering out AI, and almost always have my suspicions confirmed by an AI check.
None of Brandi’s articles have thrown up the usual red flags. Brandi has a distinct voice and cadence in her writing, which remains consistent across the hundred-plus articles I’ve read thus far.
Granted, some of her turns of phrase may become rote and repeated as she often treads similar ground multiple times (everything is connected!). Even so, those familiar word strings are, to me, consistent with her thematic and investigative emphases rather than giving a vibe of an AI-generated hallucination.
Again, genuinely curious how you’ve concluded this.