Indigenous Women: Letter of Solidarity with Humanitarian Flotilla
Date: September 12, 2025
To Whom It May Concern,
We write as Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people grounded in our responsibilities to our Peoples and lands, to raise our voices in solidarity with the people of Palestine. What is unfolding in Gaza is genocide. It is the continuation and escalation of settler colonialism, erasure, and state violence — patterns familiar to Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island.
For generations, our Nations have endured forced starvation, the theft and destruction of our lands, attacks against our traditional knowledge and kinship systems, the targeting of our men, women and children, and policies designed to erase us. In Palestine, we see these same strategies of colonial domination enacted through an illegal blockade, bombardment, land theft and ecocide, and the denial of food, water, and medicine. Just as our ancestors survived the brutal machinery of colonial states that we continue to resist, Palestinians today resist the genocide of their people.
It is in this context of shared struggle that we affirm our support for the humanitarian flotilla sailing to break the siege of Gaza and two Indigenous women, Dr. Suzanne Shoush, (St'atl'imx/Sudanese, Leq'á:mel First Nation), and Mskwaasin Agnew (Cree/Dene, Salt River First Nation) who will be joining the flotilla. Their participation in this all-women mission is continuation of the historic role Indigenous women have always played: carrying our Peoples through catastrophe and leading with resilience and strength.
As Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people, we remember how our grandmothers carried communities through the smallpox epidemics, how they tried to resist the theft of our children into residential schools, and how they safeguarded our languages, medicines, and teachings despite the Indian Act and genocidal policies enacted by church and state and the attempts at erasure. Indigenous women have always been the backbone of survival. Today, Palestinian women are carrying their families through siege, famine, and bombardment. They are keeping alive their culture, protecting their children, and holding their communities together under the weight of genocide. Their struggle is our struggle. Their survival is our survival. Their humanity threatened is our humanity threatened.
We call upon the Government of Canada to end its complicity in genocide, to support the breaking of the seige/blockade, and to uphold its international human rights obligations to prevent a genocide: the Rome Statute which would implement the ICJ decisions on Israel to stop the numerous violations of Palestinian human rights, the UN Charter, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Genocide Convention.
With strength and solidarity,
Bronwyn Cole Shoush (Coast Salish), B. Sc, LLB / JD, Mother of Suzanne Shoush
Maria Campbell (Cree Halfbreed), Writer and Grandmother.
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel (Kanien’kehá:ka), Artist, Documentarian and Activist
Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock), Theatre Artist and Writer
Christi Belcourt (Metis), Artist
Sylvia McAdam (nêhiyaw), Idle No More Co-Founder
Wanda Nanibush (Anishinaabe), Independent Curator and Writer
Erin Konsmo (Red River Métis), Artist, Practitioner and Scholar
Gabrielle Fayant (Metis), Activist and Writer
Melody McKiver (Anishinaabe), Musician, Assistant Professor, Treaty #3 Two-Spirit Council Member
Eve Saint (Wet’sewet’en/Mushkegowuk), Land Defender / Skyzè (Descendent of Wet’suwe’ten Hereditary Chief Woos)
Sleydo’ (Wet’sewet’en), Wing Chief of the Cas Yikh Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en
Tanya Kappo (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ), JD, LLM, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Treaty No. 8
Leanne Betasamoke Simpson (Nishnaabe), Independent Scholar and Writer
Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat (Anishinaabe), Birthworker, Harm Reductionist
Tara Houska - Zhaabowekwe (Anishinaabe), JD, Mother, Land Defender and Writer
Dr. Janet Smylie (Metis), MD MPH Physician and Scholar
Quill Christie-Peters (Anishinaabe), Artist and Writer
Eriel Deranger (Denesuline), Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation
