I am Judy. I lived at the Strathcona “Squat.” Today I am poor. In my life I have raised two children, I have loved, I have struggled and I have survived. I faced the struggles of so many Aboriginal women in a white world.

The past forty years have seen dramatic changes among the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In 1963 the legacy of colonialism was deeply entrenched, Aboriginal peoples were seen as a ‘problem population’ within Canada, Aboriginal rights were widely ignored and unknown, there were few national voices or fora for Aboriginal leaders. In 2003 the struggle to decolonize is being engaged in a wide variety of institutions.