Wellness Within Condemns Changes to Indigenous Beadwork Program in Women's Jail

Wellness Within is angered by changes to a beadwork program at the Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley, Manitoba, where the Province has directed that Indigenous women in custody will no longer be allowed to sell their crafts. The volunteer-run program, Women Helping Women, previously allowed incarcerated women to sell the wares through a beading collective—using the income to support their children and families or purchase essential items at the jail canteen.

Indigenous women are the fastest-growing demographic in Canada’s prisons. This is due, in no small part, to the historic systemic violence perpetrated by the state through the legacy of the residential school system; the failure of culturally appropriate child welfare provisions for Indigenous children; and continued social, environmental, and economic racism across our country.

Through this program, beadwork has been a way for Indigenous women to heal by connecting to their culture and supporting themselves and their loved ones. Prohibiting this act of resistance further demonstrates the colonization our prison system was founded on. Wellness Within echoes calls from local MLA Nahanni Fontaine to reverse the changes.

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Wellness Within is a volunteer-based registered non-profit organization that serves women, transgender, and nonbinary people who have experienced criminalization and are pregnant or have young children in Nova Scotia, part of the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people. 

Wellness Within supports people through the full spectrum of reproductive health experience; facilitates workshops and education sessions; develops resource materials; and advocates for reproductive justice issues.

Contact: Claire Rillie, Chair, 902-456-3807 or crillie@gmail.com and Dr. Martha Paynter, Director of Research, 902-292-7082 or martha.paynter@gmail.com