It is argued by some that patriarchy and colonialism are at the root of sex work, and therefore sex work should be abolished. Can’t the same be said of marriage? Aren’t Indigenous women violated, raped and murdered by intimate partners, including spouses, at three times the rate of Canadian women? If our streets, workplaces and our homes are all shaped by patriarchal colonialism, I see no reason to support abolishing sex work without arguing for the abolition of every other gendered activity in which we are violated. Instead, it seems more useful to agree that colonialism structures our lives as Indigenous women and then choose to center our agency, choice, mobility and relationships in resistance to this structure in all aspects of our lives. This includes centering Indigenous women’s agency, choice and mobility in sex work.
Sarah Hunt lists some of the reasons she supports the decriminalization of sex work as an Indigenous woman on the Becoming Collective blog, in “Sex Work and Self-Determination: in solidarity with the Bedford case“