Given the maze of issues around the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls tragedy, including; law enforcement, drug activity, gang influence, fossil fuel industry man-camps and legislative failings, it's time we stand together as women and as a society and begin a grassroots movement to support our Indigenous sisters! We CANNOT wait around for these enormous, long standing and complex systems to unravel, fix and implode themselves. We must take matters into our own collective hands! What better way to do it than to empower Indigenous women and girls.
That is why Nation Unsevered in collaboration with Rynalea Whiteman Pena (President, Northern Cheyenne Tribe), Chief Judy Wilson (Union of BC Indian Chiefs Executive/Chief of Neskonlith Indian Band of the Shushwap Nation), Shelly Fyant (Councilwoman of Confederated Salish Kootanai Tribes), Jami Pluff (Policy Analyst, and former Vice Chairwoman of Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes), Tina Has The Eagle (Program Manager for Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council (RMTLC) is launching pilot projects for the IWG Empowerment and Self-Defense Program this Summer 2020. It is a coming together of many voices, hearts and hands.
The Indigenous community is standing all over Turtle Island, calling out for justice for #MMIWG. They are rising to say no more. We have to rise with them! Thich Naht Hanh says, "To be loved is to be recognized as existing." The Empowerment and Self-Defense Program says to Indigenous women and girls, we see you! You are powerful beyond measure, you are loved, revered and respected. The program will provide teachings of unique Traditional and cultural practices, and the elements of the program's framework will seek to instill inherent self-worth, power, creativity, beauty and cultural wisdom, something that has been stolen by a racist and misogynistic society. If Indigenous women and girls can better protect their whole selves on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level, many lives and life itself will be saved! Our Earth is hurting and our Indigenous sisters hold wisdom and teachings that are the very keys to our future. We must stand for protecting the Sacred Feminine and protecting and empowering our sacred sisters. Our society, our economic system beholden to fossil fuels, our government and law enforcement systems' hands all have blood on them. Let us rise as individuals and create a this movement of empowerment healing and change. Will you join Nation Unsevered and say NO MORE will I stand by and let this happen. We must finally get it, in our crazy heads, something our heart's on fire already know, that when one woman, one girl, goes missing, raped, sold or murdered, women everywhere, including the Mother Earth Herself, is at risk for this same treatment.
