Over-Represented, and Under-Protected

Over-Represented, and Under-Protected: Building A Reproductive Justice Framework Centring Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Gender-Diverse and Trans Communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Timeline: April 2025 – March 2027

The Over-Represented and Under-Protected project seeks to address injustices through community-based participatory research (CBPR), ensuring that Indigenous & Black women, girls, Two Spirit, gender-diverse and trans (IB-WG2SGDT) communities document their experiences, reclaim knowledge, and advocate for systemic change. By centring survivor-led research and community practices, this initiative will help dismantle structural barriers and advance reproductive justice for these historically marginalized communities.

Decades of systemic violence, racial capitalism, and cultural genocide have harmed Indigenous communities, particularly Indigenous women, girls, trans, gender-diverse and Two-Spirit individuals who face ongoing gender, colonial, and racial violence. Similarly, anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in Canadian structures, policies, and practices, shaping the lived experiences of Black women, girls, gender-diverse, and trans (B-WGGDT) folks. Their oppression is compounded by “misogynoir” (Bailey, 2016), a term coined by Dr. Moya Bailey to describe the unique intersection of anti-Blackness and misogyny that devalues, stereotypes, and harms Black women and gender-diverse people.

Afro-Indigenous individuals experience the compounded effects of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, often facing exclusion from both Black and Indigenous communities. This dual marginalization limits their access to culturally safe healthcare, social services, and reproductive justice resources, reinforcing cycles of trauma and invisibility (Beals, 2018).

Across these communities, systemic racism in healthcare, social services, and legal systems results in:

• Higher rates of maternal and infant mortality due to medical neglect and inadequate care
• Forced and coerced sterilization, disproportionately affecting Indigenous and Black women (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2024)
• Barriers to culturally responsive reproductive healthcare, leading to poor health outcomes (Mahabir et al., 2021)
• Gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual violence that impacts reproductive health
• Exclusion from reproductive health policies and decision-making spaces.

Portfolio: Engaging Men & Boys, Research & Education, Health & Wellness, Sexual Violence

Funders

WomenatthecentrE Team

Nneka MacGregor (She/Her), Executive Director

Gifty Asare (She/Her), Director of Research & Community Engagement

Nicole Taylor-Fontyn (she/her), Director of Programs

Kelsy Dundas (she/her), Project Director

Simone Blais (she/her), Project Manager

Aunjrya Fleming (she/her), Project Coordinator

• • Examine and document the systemic barriers impacting IB-WG2SGDT peoples’ reproductive and sexual health, including access to culturally safe healthcare, the effects of GBV, and policy gaps
  • Engage community members through community-based participatory research (CBPR) that prioritizes lived experiences of survivors and frontline advocates in shaping the research framework and findings
  • Build solidarity within and between Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous communities by recognizing shared histories of oppression and reclaiming ancestral knowledge.
  • Encourage allyship / accompliceship by involving Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous men and boys in critical discussions on GBV and its intersection with reproductive rights
  • Support sustainable change by sharing research findings through a Reproductive Justice Exchange Hub to inform advocacy, policy recommendations, and service improvements.

OCAMA Collective: Ocama Collective is a community-directed group of birth workers of colour, living and working in Tkaronto (Toronto), who are dedicated to the reclamation of traditional and holistic childbearing and birthing practices, amongst BIPOC folk.

Reicura: Reicura is a full service marketing, communication and creative-agency that harnesses the power of creative work to connect brands & organizations with the people who can find value from them.

National Advisory Committee: The project developed and engages a National Advisory Committee of passionate community members, service providers, researchers, activists, youth, elders, and survivors of gender-based violence and/or reproductive injustice. This committee reflects the diversity of experiences of reproductive injustice across Canada, ensuring critical and intersecting lived experiences are central and leading this project. The committee meets quarterly, providing feedback, guidance and leadership to this 2-year initiative. Halton