Solidarity Settler Statement

We at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape would like to make a statement in regards to our position around violence against Indigenous communities, Indigenous women and 2 spirit people and the Indigenous Resistance Movement. We would like to make this statement from our position as a majority settler organization.

As members of the TRCC/MWAR, we speak from our position as (mostly) settlers on Turtle Island. As settlers we express our solidarity with the Idle No More Movement, Indigenous women, 2 sprit people and the struggles for sovereignty and land rights. We believe that the movement for the self-determination of Indigenous peoples is not a new one.

As a majority settler organization, we believe that colonization and sexual violence go hand in hand. We know that rape and sexual violence has been used against Indigenous women and communities for hundreds of years and it is a tool of colonization and war against Indigenous women’s bodies and land itself.

The TRCC/MWAR has a goal of bringing our membership more in line with the connection between decolonization and ending sexual violence. We also have a goal of working more closely in solidarity with Indigenous women’s work to end violence in their communities.

We recognize that the history and current reality of Canada is one of colonization and genocide of Indigenous peoples. This has resulted in the dispossession of land and rights, the extraction and misuse of resources and forced suppression and assimilation of all the various cultures, languages and customs of Indigenous peoples. Another clear result of the ongoing state violence against Indigenous peoples is the 3000 and more missing and murdered Indigenous women across Turtle Island.

Further, we recognize the history of nonprofit organizations have often been to be arms of the state. It is our goal to work toward decolonization of the TRCC/MWAR. This can happen in making ourselves aware of the struggles for sovereignty, treaties and land rights, taking the direction and leadership from Indigenous peoples and their resistance, attending events led by Indigenous people, continuing to learn about the historical struggles of Indigenous peoples and so much more. We are committed to decolonizing our minds, our work and the relationships we have with Indigenous peoples. Through working with Indigenous community-based organizations and community members, we attempt to work in a good way.

This year we will be co-hosting Take Back the Night with Parkdale Legal Clinic. The theme this year is “Housing Justice for ALL”. When selecting the theme, we thought about centring the understanding that safer housing options result in safer communities. Naomi Coordinating TBTN and collective membership supporting roles for the event.

This Take Back the Night, we centre the voices of survivors who have no fixed-address 

We celebrate the strength of those who fight for housing that is their RIGHT 

We feast with survivors who are hungry for the end of gender-based violence 

We march with neighbourhoods who say NO to gentrification

We Take Back the Night and we do it without fear

It is with our most authentic selves that we try to plan this event in a good way and to work in solidarity with existing struggles and movements with Indigenous people and to also bring this issue to light for other settler community members.

References:

South Asians in Solidarity with Idle No More

Immigrants in Support of Idle No More

http://www.oyetimes.com/whats-on/42915-immigrants-in-support-of-idle-no-more