Aq’am First Nation and local schools joined forces to take a stand against violence towards Indigenous women and children on May 16.
Students gathered in Rotary Park in Cranbrook to watch guest speakers talk about their personal experience with abuse, and listened to the powerful beat of Indigenous drumming. The event was part of the larger nation-wide Moose Hide Campaign, which aims to raise awareness of gender-based violence and undo the effects of residential school trauma.
The Moose Hide Campaign takes place annually in communities across Canada, but this was the first time the event was held in Cranbrook.
Co-organizer Renee Simard spent time living up north in Fort St. John, a community where Indigenous women go missing at an alarming rate. She also has a friend there, whose two sisters were murdered by their partners.
Hearing reports of gender-based violence motivated her to host the event.
“It’s a very serious situation with violence against women, and it needs to stop. It’s a hard thing to stop too because it happens behind closed doors and nobody knows about it … Lots of people just turn their eye. They don’t know what’s going on so they don’t want to get involved,” she said.
Speaker Michele A. Sam said there are many different kinds of trauma that Indigenous people deal with, including domestic and partner violence, sexual abuse, and epistemic violence. The latter is a systemic issue that relates to Indigenous cultural erasure at the hands of the government and other institutions of power.
“A lot of the violence we’re dealing with, it doesn’t originate from Indigenous communities. It’s a result of colonialism. It’s a result of history,” she said.
Sam said it’s important for the public to actively engage in reconciliation in order to heal the wrongs of the past. She recommends reading books about Indigenous issues, taking Indigenous-taught courses at College of the Rockies, consuming Indigenous media, and reflecting on our own ideas and perceptions of Indigenous people.
“It does come down to our ways of thinking, our ways of knowing, unpacking what we think we know about Indigenous people. Stereotypes get taught over generations,” she explained.