Beverley Jacobs

Beverley K. Jacobs, LL.B., LL.M., is a Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) community representative from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Bear Clan. She is a former president of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) and is best known for her work on advocating for the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Personal Life

In 1962, Beverley K. Jacobs (Gowehgyuseh) was born into the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation on the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, in Southern Ontario. Her traditional name, Gowehgyuseh means “She’s visiting." She is the mother of Ashley and Lukas and grandmother of Nicholas and Tessa.[1]

Education

After spending some time working as a legal secretary, Jacobs decided to pursue a career as a lawyer. She juggled law school with the responsibilities of being a single mother. Often because she had no alternative, Jacobs brought her daughter Ashley, then eight, to class with her.[2]

The only Aboriginal student in her first year, Jacobs started the First Nations Law Students Society on campus. She graduated from Windsor, then obtained her Master’s degree in Law from the University of Saskatchewan in 2000.[3]

Career

Bear Clan Consulting

After leaving university Jacobs became a consultant, launching her firm Bear Clan Consulting where she dealt with issues such as Bill C-31, Residential Schools, Matrimonial Real Property, and Aboriginal Women’s health issues.[4]

Amnesty International

Jacobs' consulting work led to a project at Amnesty International which changed the course of her life and career. In 2004 she penned the Stolen Sisters Report – a ground-breaking document that exposed the racialized and sexualized violence suffered by Indigenous women in Canada, and led to what would become known and the Sisters In Spirit movement, a movement to pressure government, police and media to pay attention to the growing number of missing and murdered Indigenous woman in Canada and the large number of unsolved cases.[5][6]

Native Women’s Association of Canada

In 2004 Jacobs entered the world of Indigenous politics, running and winning the election for President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), largely on her work with families of missing and murdered aboriginal women. Jacobs was re-elected for a second term as President of NWAC in 2006.[7]

As president of NWAC Jacobs’ negotiated $10 million in funding from the federal government to support research into 500 of missing and murdered Indigenous women, to create a national registry, a hotline, and public education programs. Vigils became a hallmark of the Sisters in Spirit movement. Families of the missing and murdered would gather with pictures of their missing children, sometimes lighting candles or releasing balloons all as a means of trying to attract media attention to their cause. Bridget Tolley, an Algonquin woman whose mother was killed by Quebec police in 2001, is credited with pitching the idea of holding vigils as a media strategy to NWAC. [8] [9] In her role as President Jacobs was also in attendance at the 2008 apology from Prime Minister Harper to residential school survivors. [10]

Jacobs chose not to run in the 2009 election. Her own niece had been murdered. [11]

Families of Sisters in Spirit

After Jacobs left NWAC, the Conservative federal government, led by Stephen Harper cancelled the Sisters in Spirit project and said they would not fund any future projects if NWAC used the name Sisters in Spirit in any of its programming.[12][13]

However families who had met through the Sister in Spirit campaign formed Facebook groups, and stayed in touch, and continued to hold vigils, forming a new social movement.[14] In 2012 alone, 163 vigils were held across Canada.[15] Families also began pushing for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered women. Initially the federal conservative government refused to consider an inquiry, but when they were unseated in 2015, the newly governing Liberal Party quickly announced they would hold an inquiry.[16]

Jacobs continued to practice law on a part-time basis. She also completed an interdisciplinary PhD in Law, Sociology and Aboriginal Health at the University of Calgary, Alberta. She remained involved with the movement Families of Sisters in Spirit at the grassroots level and joined the voices advocating for a national inquiry.[17]

Awards/Honours

Video Links

References

  1. ↑ Native Leaders of Canada in New Federation http://www.newfederation.org/Native_Leaders/Bios/Jacobs.htm
  2. ↑ By Paul Riggi Bev Jacobs A Sister in Spirit University of Windsor Alumni Magazine http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/view.nsf/EditCategoryDocs/8641D99C2E6F98A0852570C10050B6F8 Career
  3. ↑ By Paul Riggi Bev Jacobs A Sister in Spirit University of Windsor Alumni Magazine http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/view.nsf/EditCategoryDocs/8641D99C2E6F98A0852570C10050B6F8 Career
  4. ↑ Native Leaders of Canada in New Federation http://www.newfederation.org/Native_Leaders/Bios/Jacobs.htm
  5. ↑ Native Leaders of Canada in New Federation http://www.newfederation.org/Native_Leaders/Bios/Jacobs.htm
  6. ↑ Bev Jacobs on Canada's murdered and missing indigenous women CBC As it Happens Tuesday April 14, 2015 http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.3032354/bev-jacobs-on-canada-s-murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women-1.3033103
  7. ↑ By Paul Riggi Bev Jacobs A Sister in Spirit University of Windsor Alumni Magazine http://web4.uwindsor.ca/units/pac/view.nsf/EditCategoryDocs/8641D99C2E6F98A0852570C10050B6F8
  8. ↑ Dana Wray March and vigil honours missing and murdered Native women October 6, 2012 http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/10/march-and-vigil-honours-missing-and-murdered-native-women/
  9. ↑ Families share memories of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Metro News http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2015/10/04/families-share-memories-of-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women.html
  10. ↑ CANADA APOLOGIZES-06 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxc1TNWKFoM
  11. ↑ By Stefania Seccia Windspeaker “B.C. and Native leaders shoulder the hard work of ending violence” Windspeaker Volume: 32 Issue: 4 Year: 2014 http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/bc-and-native-leaders-shoulder-hard-work-ending-violence#sthash.o33QLyfv.dpuf
  12. ↑ By Jorge Barrera “Moon setting on Sisters in Spirit?” APTN National News, November 4, 2010
  13. ↑ Annette Francis, Ministers defend decision to dump SIS APTN National News, March 2, 2011 http://aptn.ca/news/2011/03/02/ministers-defend-decision-to-dump-sis/
  14. ↑ Newsworthy Victims: MMIW and the Media Canadaland Episode #:112 December 13, 2015
  15. ↑ Dana Wray March and vigil honours missing and murdered Native women October 6, 2012 http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/10/march-and-vigil-honours-missing-and-murdered-native-women/
  16. ↑ Dana Wray March and vigil honours missing and murdered Native women October 6, 2012 http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/10/march-and-vigil-honours-missing-and-murdered-native-women/
  17. ↑ Brandi Morin, Closed Door Meeting Held to Plan Grassroots Action on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women APTN National News May 2, 2015 http://aptn.ca/news/2015/05/02/closed-door-meeting-held-plan-grassroots-action-murdered-missing-indigenous-women/
  18. ↑ Native Leaders of Canada in New Federation http://www.newfederation.org/Native_Leaders/Bios/Jacobs.htm

External links

Preceded by
Terri Brown		 President of the Native Women's Association of Canada
2004 - 2009 		Succeeded by
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell
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