HAWAII'S SILENT SCREAMS: Shocking report reveals horrific truth behind missing and murdered native women
HAWAII, US: The ‘Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls’ (MMNHWG) report, published on December 14, provides new insight into a growing problem in the islands. The average profile of a missing child from the island of Oahu and Native Hawaiian is "15-year-old, female,” according to the report. The report also reveals "indigenous women and girls, including Native Hawaiians, experience violence at much higher rates than other populations in the United States." They are 10 times more likely to be murdered than women from other ethnic groups.
According to the shocking report, 43% of sex trafficking victims are Kānaka Maoli girls, who are trafficked in Waikīkī, O‘ahu. The report also contains worrying statistics from law enforcement operations. For example, it states 38 percent of those arrested for “soliciting sex from a thirteen-year-old online through Operation Keiki Shield are active-duty military personnel.” Besides, "25 percent of the offenders arrested in March 2019 operation, which was not a 'military op' and which was the only documented non-military Operation Keiki Shield operation on O‘ahu since 2019, were military men," the report adds.
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Dead Arapaho women's sister slams color bias in media coverage of missing persons
Nikki Cristobal, the MMNHWG report’s principal investigator, said that there have been similar studies that show indigenous women in Canada and the US mainland are murdered or go missing at rates disproportionate to the size of the actual population. She added that a comparable, reliable statistic for Native Hawaiian women ignored the task force, which was created after people demanded more attention to missing and killed indigenous women and girls and other people of color after the 2021 disappearance of Gabby Petito, because of a lack of data, as per The Seattle Times.
Primary causes and challenges
The outlet states that the biggest challenge is that many cases don't get reported, and those that do are not well-documented or tracked. Moreover, public and private agencies don’t always collect statistics on race. The lack of disaggregated data is complicated by the inconsistencies in racial definitions when race data is collected. The Seattle Times reports that about 20 percent of the state’s population is Native Hawaiian.
Kerri Colfer, who is Tlingit and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s senior native affairs adviser, said she has come across situations where law enforcement officers have victim-blamed Native women and were not prompt enough to investigate or declare them missing. She said, “That often means that the families end up leading the searches for their missing relatives before law enforcement even tries to get involved. And obviously, that is retraumatizing for families,” according to The Guardian.
What's the cause? A lack of coverage. Dr Patty Loew, professor at Northwestern University’s journalism school and director of its Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, said the lack of coverage is driven by many factors, including the misclassification of Native women. He told The Guardian, "I think news prefers people that sort of stay within the system and people of color who are assimilatory and want equal rights – that’s something we understand. But I think reporters don’t really understand sovereignty, and people who have a political identity that exists outside the mainstream.”
The case of Mary Johnson
The disappearance of Tulalip tribal member Mary Johnson received very little attention. She was last seen on November 25, 2020, and was reported missing on December 9, 2020, by her estranged husband. There has been no update about her whereabouts so far. Nona Blouin, Johnson’s older sister, told CNN in 2021, "If that was a little White girl out there or a White woman, I’m sure they would have had helicopters, airplanes and dogs and searches – a lot of manpower out there – scouring where that person was lost. None of that has happened for our sister.”
The disparity
Commenting on the tremendous publicity of cases like Petito, including Natalee Holloway and Laci Peterson, journalist Mara Schiavocampo said, “This actually has real-life implications for women of color. Why? This makes them less safe because perpetrators, predators, know that if you want to get away with murder, you seek the victim that no one is going to look for.”
The Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center reports that white people are more likely to have an article written about them while they are still alive. Approximately 76 percent of articles written about white victims are published while the victim is still alive, but 42 percent of articles written about indigenous victims come out after they are found dead.