This summer, I am embarking upon a 6-week cycling trip along the St. Lawrence river, know to as Kaniatarowanenneh, meaning “big waterway” in Mohawk. This journey will take me through the traditional Algonquin, Mohawk, Huron-Wendat, Mi’kmaq, Innus, and St. Lawrence Iroquois territories. In an effort of reconciliation, I’ll be collecting donations to support the NATIVE WOMEN'S SHELTER OF MONTRÉAL.
As we all know, it’s been a time of great precarity for individuals and communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. For many first nations women, this pandemic has only exacerbated security issues that they already faced on a daily basis. In Canada, native women face higher rates of poverty, abuse, and homicide than non-native women. The privilege of isolating securely is not granted to everybody. For those that face racial and gender-based violence and discrimination, this is a time when having access to support services is critical. As the world largely shut down, many points of access to community care and social services have either been overloaded or shut off. The Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal benefits women and their children all throughout the greater Montréal area, and those that migrate to the city from other regions in Québec. It’s programming dignifies women (which includes trans and two-spirit) and children by providing security, shelter, advocacy and counselling services, financial aid, healthcare, workshops, and more.
We have a long history to overcome and what’s required of us, are acts of reparation. So much of the discrimination that first nations women face has come through governmental legislation, policing, and a lack of attention in media and curriculums. The entanglement of cultural, institutional, and personal biases creates systemic oppression on the bases of race and gender identity. To undo these emotionally overwrought knots of history, we can hold space, listen, learn, and donate what we can to those that need it most. One way in which we can encourage healing is by supporting trauma and harm reduction services. If you have the capacity, contributions of any size are welcome. If now is not a time when you’re able to make financial contributions, please feel free to share this page with others. There’s much to do, and we can do much together. <3
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when
We come to it.
- Maya Angelou, “A Brave and Startling Truth”
artwork by Fen Prior-Delahanty
As we all know, it’s been a time of great precarity for individuals and communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. For many first nations women, this pandemic has only exacerbated security issues that they already faced on a daily basis. In Canada, native women face higher rates of poverty, abuse, and homicide than non-native women. The privilege of isolating securely is not granted to everybody. For those that face racial and gender-based violence and discrimination, this is a time when having access to support services is critical. As the world largely shut down, many points of access to community care and social services have either been overloaded or shut off. The Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal benefits women and their children all throughout the greater Montréal area, and those that migrate to the city from other regions in Québec. It’s programming dignifies women (which includes trans and two-spirit) and children by providing security, shelter, advocacy and counselling services, financial aid, healthcare, workshops, and more.
We have a long history to overcome and what’s required of us, are acts of reparation. So much of the discrimination that first nations women face has come through governmental legislation, policing, and a lack of attention in media and curriculums. The entanglement of cultural, institutional, and personal biases creates systemic oppression on the bases of race and gender identity. To undo these emotionally overwrought knots of history, we can hold space, listen, learn, and donate what we can to those that need it most. One way in which we can encourage healing is by supporting trauma and harm reduction services. If you have the capacity, contributions of any size are welcome. If now is not a time when you’re able to make financial contributions, please feel free to share this page with others. There’s much to do, and we can do much together. <3
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divinesWhen we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when
We come to it.
- Maya Angelou, “A Brave and Startling Truth”
artwork by Fen Prior-Delahanty
Organizer
F
FOYER POUR FEMMES AUTOCHTONES DE MONTREAL/NATIVE WOMEN'S SHELTER OF MONTREAL
Beneficiary