BWSS Honours National Indigenous Peoples Day
Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is commemorating National Indigenous Peoples Day today.
Today, and every day, is an important time to celebrate and honour the many cultures and teachings of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous nations across these lands. We are deeply grateful for the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations who have inhabited and stewarded these lands and waters every day since time immemorial.
For non-Indigenous people and settlers, it is also important to act to end the ongoing genocide in Canada and its impacts on Indigenous communities. As a frontline anti-violence organization, we know that settler-colonialism is designed to deliberately target Indigenous women, girls, trans, and two-spirit peoples. Gender-based violence on these lands is inseparable from gendered colonial violence. We raise our hands in deepest respect to the matriarchs, elders, and knowledge keepers who have been building decolonial anti-violence interventions since time immemorial on these lands.
BWSS is spotlighting 6 crucial resources by Indigenous peoples for National Indigenous Peoples Day. More resources are available through our multi-format and multilingual resource hub, Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange.
1
Resistance and Resurgence Webinar: Decolonization in a Time of “Reconciliation”
Indigenous women in this Feminists Deliver webinar discuss how abolishing white supremacy and colonialism means understanding how it plays out in every institution in Canada including the child welfare system, criminal justice system, housing system, and access to healthcare, education and employment.
Accessibility Format: Captioned Video
2
Meeting Survivors’ Needs: Gender-Based Violence Against Inuit Women and the Criminal Justice System
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada conducted a research project with Inuit women and justice-related service providers to study the criminal justice system’s response to gender-based violence in Inuvialuit, Nunavut, and Nunavik to increase awareness and understanding of the needs, challenges, and service gaps many Inuit women face.
Accessibility Format: Machine readable text
3
Warrior Kids Podcast
Warrior Kids podcast with Pam Palmater is an interactive podcast that is a celebration of everything Indigenous. The podcast celebrates Indigenous cultures and values so that kids can learn about what it means to be strong, healthy, and compassionate warriors for themselves, their families, communities and Nations.
Accessibility Format: Audio
4
You Are Made of Medicine: A Mental Health Peer Support Manual for Indigiqueer, Two-Spirit, LGBTQ+, and Gender Non-Conforming Indigenous Youth
This toolkit by Native Youth Sexual Health Network is a mental health peer support manual for Indigiqueer, Two-Spirit, LGBTQ+, and Gender Non-Conforming Indigenous youth.
Accessibility Format: Machine readable text
5
Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo
Where is Cleo? Taken by child welfare workers in the 1970’s and adopted in the U.S., the young Cree girl’s family believes she was raped and murdered while hitchhiking back home to Saskatchewan. Award-winning CBC news investigative reporter Connie Walker joins the search to find out what really happened to Cleo.
Accessibility Format: Audio
6
The Decolonial Toolbox: An Educational Pathway
This toolkit by Mikana and Montreal Indigenous Community Network de-centers and unlearns the colonial narratives that non-Indigenous people have learnt and encourages reflection on the role of settlers.
Accessibility Format: Machine-readable text
Thank you for these resources and drawing them to my attention as an IPV support worker!