Page 27 Colonial Roots, Contemporary Risk Factors: a cautionary exploration of the domestic trafficking of Aboriginal women and girls in British Columbia, Canada Sarah Hunt (Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation 1 ) In recent years, scholars have taken up the issue of domestic trafficking of Aboriginal girls and women in Canada, asserting that this is an issue of pressing concern in our communities. 2,3,4,5 Indeed, one study reported that Aboriginal women and children make up the majority of people trafficked within Canada. 6 With a lack of available data to clarify the extent and nature of human trafficking in Aboriginal communities, the authors have largely conflated domestic trafficking with youth sexual exploitation, intergenerational violence, and disappearance or abduction, resulting in a muddling of trafficking with other forms of violence and abuse. In order to better inform prevention and education efforts in Aboriginal communities, a more nuanced exploration of the trafficking of Aboriginal girls and women in Canada is needed. Adult sex work, often conflated with sexual exploitation in literature on domestic trafficking of Indigenous women, must also be approached within a rights-based framework rather than throwing it into the mix of exploitation. In this paper, I will draw on my 10 years of experience as a community-based researcher, program coordinator and educator on issues of youth sexual exploitation, intergenerational violence and related issues stemming from the colonisation of Indigenous communities in British Columbia (BC), Canada. I will also draw on available research to argue that while Indigenous girls and women in Canada are at heightened risk of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, little evidence is available to support the claim that trafficking is a growing issue in our communities. Rather, as others have argued 2 , human trafficking is one of many forms of sexualised violence perpetrated against Aboriginal women, and efforts to address trafficking must simultaneously distinguish between trafficking, youth sexual exploitation, adult sex work, and a range of violent offences while seeing the colonial roots which link various forms of abuse and marginalisation. In talking about issues of violence in Aboriginal communities, there is a danger of perpetuating stereotypes of Aboriginal women and girls as pure helpless victims lacking in agency, choice or voice, while at the same time ignoring the systemic marginalisation that is at the root of colonial violence. I will therefore begin this paper by focusing on the systemic factors shaping the violence against us 7 , turning the gaze toward those institutions and individuals that have historically facilitated our marginalisation and victimisation. A starting point for this discussion is asking the question: If human trafficking is about forced movement, exploitation, and the misuse of power in controlling the bodies of marginalised people, who has control over the movement, labour and bodies of Indigenous girls and women in Canada? The Deep Roots of Sexualised Violence in Canada The roots of sexual violence in Canada are as deep as colonialism itself. Some Indigenous scholars, such as Andrea Smith, have suggested that sexual violence serves as a powerful metaphor for the entire concept of colonialism. 8 The use of sexual violence as a tool of colonial conquest and domination is well documented internationally, including within Canada. Historically, stereotypes of Aboriginal women as “licentious and bloodthirsty” 9 aided in the establishment and control of Indian reserves, as European men and women were seen as needing protection from the sexual promiscuity of Aboriginal women. The containment of Aboriginal peoples on reserves remained in place until about the 1950s, when community members began migrating to urban areas due to a lack of resources and opportunities on reserves. Additionally, Aboriginal children were forced into the residential school system (which operated in BC between 1863 and 1984), which focused on industrial training along with stripping Aboriginal children of their cultural teachings. The Canadian government, in partnership with religious organisations, forcibly removed children from their homes, often facilitating their sexual and physical abuse by school officials. Forced migration, confinement in residential schools and facilitated sexual abuse has the characteristics of what we now call human trafficking, although it is not recognized