Defining Human Security: “Safety” - Under-Resourced and Over Policed?
by Broden Halcrow-Ducharme

Safety is something many people rarely stop to think about until it is challenged. For some families, the word security no longer means freedom from danger, but a daily effort to stay connected, to keep going, and to hold onto one another through grief.

​

Human security is not just about protection from harm. It is about stability in all parts of life: home, family, health, identity, and purpose. It asks, Do we have what we need to live with dignity? Do we feel cared for and valued? Do we belong? For Indigenous families, that sense of safety is often tested by the legacies of colonial systems that have left communities under-resourced and over policed. This means that while essential supports such as housing, healthcare, and education are often limited, law enforcement and state intervention can be disproportionately present. The result is an imbalance where care and control are unevenly applied, and this continues to shape how safety is defined and experienced today.

​

When support systems fail or disappear, the feeling of safety can quickly give way to uncertainty and fear. Yet in the face of these challenges, Indigenous families have always found ways to protect and sustain one another. Safety becomes an act of love, something built through relationships, ceremony, and community care. It is expressed in the auntie who checks in daily, the youth who smudge before leaving home, and the language speaker who teaches the next generation to say I love you in their mother tongue.

​

Communities like Sagkeeng First Nation remind us that healing is collective. After loss, families often become each other’s protectors, finding strength in shared memory and ceremony. Whether through gatherings, feasts, or prayer, these moments reaffirm that safety is not a policy or an institution. It is a living practice of care that binds people together.

True human security begins when people feel seen, supported, and connected, when safety extends beyond survival and includes dignity, love, and belonging. Feeling safe is not the absence of fear; it is the presence of community, trust, and care that reminds us we are never alone.

​