Native Movement Blog
Honoring Survivors
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
On Oct. 1, the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a healing totem and panel carved by Wayne Price was unveiled and celebrated in Alaska’s capital city, Juneau. The totem and panel honor survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as missing and murdered Indigenous persons and their families and communities.
Alaska has had the highest rate of women killed by men in the nation for seven years now. Alaska Native women bear the brunt of this unacceptable statistic. They are 10 times more likely than white women to be killed.
This is absolutely unacceptable. Domestic and sexual violence are remnants of settler colonialism inflicted on our communities through boarding schools and the taking of Indigenous lands. Healing from historical trauma is extremely hard yet necessary work. We know there are also many healthy and vibrant Alaska Native families who are breaking the cycle.
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
This totem and panel remind us that in our work to end domestic and sexual violence in our communities, we must center healing. We must believe victims when they share their stories. We must support bodily autonomy and grow a culture of consent including with our young people. We also know that holding accountability is an act of love in effort to heal as a whole. We must create healing pathways for restorative justice. While we work on systemic issues we also know that the most powerful work begins in our homes and those closest to us.
The story of this totem shows a family of survivors on their healing journey together.
“We uplift all survivors who have courageously come forward and shared their stories. We believe you. This month must be more than just raising awareness- we need actions now. I call on each and every person who reads this to find an actionable item they can do to stop this violence,” said Aqpik Apok, Gender Justice and Healing Director at Native Movement.
The breaking of silence can be the first step on a healing journey. We urge you to find out how you can support the survivors you know. The culture of silence is a barrier to truths being told. Be a safe person for someone experiencing abuse to talk to, and believe survivors when they tell their stories. And if you are a survivor, there are resources you can utilize and people who love you and will support you without judgment.
At the unveiling celebration, people wrote the names of those they want to direct healing towards onto cedar pieces from the healing pole and put them in the fire. Our traditional ways, teachings, and culture offer many healing pathways. We uplift those who have been courageous to share their stories so others can come forward and be heard. The raising of the totem and panel are a beautiful illustration of healing led by our Indigenous people. May we carry that hope and intention forward this month and always.
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
Photo by: Lyndsey Brollini / Native Movement
Photos & Story By: Lyndsey Brollini, Native Movement Narrative Coordinator
MMIWG2S+ Alaska Run for Healing + Justice
We invite you to participate and honor Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn, Girls, Two Spirit+ and all relatives through healthy healing. The 3rd annual MMIWG2S+ Alaska Run for Healing, Run for Justice is a virtual 5K run, walk, or other physical activity dedicated to honoring missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and all relatives. This is a free virtual event open to all to share their participation between September 19th-24th. This event is meant to raise awareness and provide a healthy healing activity for our community to join.
Register using this link: https://forms.gle/q8qTqhdGTroooWnq7
To receive your bib and packet.
While this is not a race or competition, you can share your participation in the FB event and registered participants will be entered into a drawing for a swag bag! Check out the FB event each day to see others participation and posts from the working group on how to stay involved!
If you’re in the Anchorage area on September 24th, join us for an in-person participation at 1:00pm at the Alaska Native Heritage Center Lake Tiulana. We are looking for a few volunteers to help us with set-up and breakdown! (Volunteer Form Here). We encourage people to have runs with others in their own communities as well!
STATEMENT ON THE LEAKED DRAFT SUPREME COURT DECISION
Native Movement is grieved and outraged by governmental moves to eliminate essential human rights regarding citizen’s decision making agency over our own individual bodies.
The draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is clearly reflected in a history of relentless attacks from governmental agencies and industries on Indigenous lands, waters, and bodies from the onset of colonization. The absence of free, prior, and informed consent perpetuates many forms of violence, from Indigenous Nations to individual persons, the undermining of sovereignty and self-determination has always been and continues to be about control, abuse of power, and profit.
The draft supreme court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a direct attack on our ability to exercise inherent human rights including body sovereignty – the right to choose what happens to our own sacred being. Accessible, safe, and affordable reproductive health care, including abortion, must be available to everyone. Eliminating safe access to abortion is as much political as it is economic, keeping people with uteruses in lower wage earning jobs and ensuring future generations remain chained to the system of economic disenfranchisement. This Supreme Court decision removes the agency and autonomy of already strained and stressed people from marginalized communities, furthering inequities in a country that does not provide universal healthcare, living wages, and paid parental leave. The impacts of the Court’s decision will continue the perpetuation of systemic racism that disproportionately funnels people of color through state agencies and the prison industrial complex.
In Alaska the news of the draft Supreme Court decision is compounded by local state proposed legislation (SB140) to ban transgender youth from school sports, furthering once again the removal of body autonomy. This bill specifically aims to regulate the bodies of K-12 girls who wish to participate in sports. Policies that seek to control, erase, and eradicate trans people are entirely inhumane and utterly cruel. Trans, two-spirit, and gender expansive individuals are valuable contributing members of our communities, they have the right to childhoods free of trauma and erasure.
Native Movement sees both the Supreme Court draft decision and the Alaska State legislature’s proposed Anti-Trans Sport bill (SB140) as acts of great violence. Additionally, in the week of National Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (May 5) these acts are particularly heinous. These collective acts of violence further underscore the deep systemic inequities disproportionately impacting women, trans and non-binary relatives, and people of color. The crisis of MMIWG2S is the criminal result of the U.S. justice systems which control and dismember Indigenous Nations by intentionally failing to protect Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
Native Movement believes in the power of collective organizing – people power. We reclaim agency as we seek community protection and demand our voices be heard, rising together, voting, and mobilizing to fight for justice.
#voteprochoice #defendabortion #protectranskids #endtransphobia #MMIWG2S #abortionishumanrights #ourbodiesourrights
Crisis of Public Safety in Alaska
“How can we rethink our strategies on justice?”
The month of October is National Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (DVSA) Awareness month. As advocates for gender justice including that to end gender-based violence, we wanted to take this important time to share re-thinking strategies to justice.
This national awareness month has been in place since 1989 to call attention to the pervasive violence in ‘domestic’, ‘at home’ spaces. Alaskans burden this violence: In a 2015 survey, out of every 100 adult women in the state, 40 have expereinced intimate partner violence, 33 have experienced sexual violence and 50 have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both in their lifetime. Moreover- Among Alaska Native and American Indian people a sobering 84.3% of those surveyed indicated that they had experienced violence in their lifetime. Over and over again we have alarming statistics that shed light on the crisis of public safety in Alaska. The brave #metoo movement brought personal stories to these numbers. The need for shelters, services, and prevention has been called for time and time again. The shortcomings of VAWA implementation in Alaska has been stated numerous times from various sectors yet considered a championing point on Murkowski’s campaigns.
There are crisis lines, after crisis lines. And yes, there are incredible front-line organizations providing direct services and doing meaningful work (see Resources). And yes, the need for more is great. The outcry for more funding for tribes, nonprofits, and state initiatives hasn't’ stopped. Here, today in 2020, we have an abundance of research, matched with strong and steady voices of testimony at every level. So, after 31 years of DVSA Month- if there is anyone who is unaware of the issue it is because they are NOT listening. If DVSA isn’t on folks’ radar it's because they are CHOOSING to ignore the issue.
How can we rethink our strategies on justice? If we are to address DVSA then we need to start calling it what it truly is- white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. It’s sexism. It’s racism. It’s homophobia. It's the interlocking of these systems that continues to perpetuate violence. It is not only happening in the private sphere of the ‘domestic’ home fronts. It’s happening throughout systems beyond the domestic private space. This terminology is outdated and refers to a capitalist ideal of separation of public and private, meant to divide the political from personal, a false reality we recognize now that the political state impacts us whether we acknowledge it or not. The systemic issue of violence is in fact very public facing. Whether it's seen through the protests on police brutality or the recent case of former state Attorney General Kevin Clarkson- we can no longer deny the very public and very systemic issues of violence. Recognizing this means naming the issues of barriers and lack of accountability for what it is, symptoms of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. And the strategy? The strategy then to address DVSA in this month, and every other month is to break down systems of oppression while also growing and nurturing our ways of life that heal and keep us in right relations. This is decolonization and Indigenization of systems.
By using this framework we inherently build in a holistic and interconnected solutions-based alternative strategy to address all forms of violence. In our work of gender justice and healing we not only start to break down binaries of gender that are dehumanizing but we put forth cultural values and Indigneous ways of knowing to guide a new pathway forward. So, as we move through this month of DVSA awareness and hear from elected officials and representatives at AFN this week, such as US Attorney General Barr, let us start asking the critical questions of what role are they playing and why are they choosing to ignore the crisis of violence in Alaska? There is an opportunity to also examine budgets to see if they reflect the values we stand for, and if those dollars are being used to truly stop violence or perpetuate systems of violence. We’ve called for action. Justice is overdue.
What actions are elected officials and representatives taking now to reflect the stance they express? Follow Always Indigenous Media this week and share out PeoplesAFN2020.org!
Resources:
StrongHearts Native Helpline 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483)
National Hotline 1-800-799-7233 available 24/7
RAINN Hotline 1-844-762-8483, available everyday, but closes at 10pm
Crisis Hotline 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7
ANMC Behavioral Health Services 907-729-2500
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm -set up appointments for therapy
NSHC Behavior Health Services 907-443-3344
Monday-Friday 8am-5pm
After hours, weekends 907-443-6411