The Mother’s Hope and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
https://voiceoffreedom.ca/the-mothers-hope-and-the-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women/
Below, in teachings of the blessing and virtue of hope, Divine Mother Mary says, “February 14th is a declaration — the Mother moving amongst everyone — encouraging the women, girls, children to declare Who They Are, not to permit any more violence.”
On Valentine’s Day in Vancouver for the last 30 years, there is a march for our missing and murdered indigenous women.
Recently, I was in our Downtown Eastside witnessing a young girl with 2 black eyes shooting up. She was oblivious to me as I sat in a car 6 feet away witnessing her bind herself with an elastic tourniquet and find veins in her wrists, arms, legs covered in sores to quell her extreme addiction.
She wiped away dripping blood with grubby smoke-grimed hands as I surrounded her with every Divine Being I could call in.
A little while ago, one of the young women in recovery where I volunteer said to me, “When I was in the throes of my addiction, I knew I wanted to experience this, so I could turn around and help others. . .”
This ties in with what the Mother says about hope below and what I have experienced.
From our sorrow
can come our joy,
our sacred purpose.
The Blessing and Virtue of Hope, as taught to us by Universal Mother Mary explains:
As within so without, the shift, our Ascension, occurs on all levels, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, beginning with an end to self-sabotage.
With husbands, children, neighbours, parents, when we see them awakening, or wavering, that is when we turn to our bedrock of hope and the knowing — not the thinking — but the knowing, That All Is In Divine Order.
As the shift occurs, our awakening to Divine Right Alignment, it occurs not only in men but in women saying, “No more” and “Enough is Enough.”
February 14th is a declaration — the Mother moving amongst everyone — encouraging the women, girls, children to declare Who They Are, not to permit any more violence.
The new form of Love relationships, part of the patterning and the design of Nova Being, not gender specific, includes awe, admiration, appreciation, gratitude, spaciousness with no judgement.
There is no ownership in a Nova Being partnership. There is the room, each to do what each is destined to do, chosen to do, what brings joy.
There are things to create and co-create together and then things to do by one’s sacred self, and then to bring it the way a child brings a drawing to their mother, and it is celebrated, valued and cherished.
It is unconditional support — not love — that goes without saying, but what has been absent in many human relationships is the unconditional support, the understanding and knowing on a deep level, of forgiveness of everything.
“I can’t support you in that” is not Nova Being.
When someone says:
“I cannot support you” it is a very curious lack of love.
“I may not agree with you” or “I may not understand” or “I may not have the same vision or understanding of the picture, but I support you unconditionally, and if you are mis-stepping, I will hold your hand while you rearrange and re-balance.”
This is a very important quality of new relationships. It is the removal of condition.
It is the removal of ‘I will love you if. . .’
The ‘if’ is gone. The ‘but’ is gone, and the flow is Eternal, very different than the paradigm of relationships that has been present on Earth.
Gaia, a stellar example, has never said to us, “Well I will support you, and let you stay on my planet, if you do not sully my face.” She has always supported us.
Hope is deep twilight blue, almost navy,
the deepest colour
of blue,
the colour of our beloved Divine Mother Mary.
With thanks to Suzanne Maresca for drawing my attention to this from a publication called, Native Hope.
MISSING AND MURDERED
INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Across the United States and Canada Native Women and girls are being taken or murdered at an unrelenting rate.
https://www.nativehope.org/en-us/understanding-the-issue-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women
Facts About Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women
There is widespread anger and sadness in First Nations communities. Sisters, wives, mothers, and daughters are gone from their families without clear answers.
There are families whose loved ones are missing—babies growing up without mothers, mothers without daughters, and grandmothers without granddaughters.
For Native America, this adds one more layer of trauma upon existing wounds that cannot heal.
Communities are pleading for justice.
However, the data to confirm the scope of the problem is elusive.
“The National Crime Information Center reports that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, though the US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases.”
A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of a growing movement, the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement.
It stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard.
It stands for the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis.
It stands for the oppression and subjugation of Native women who are now rising up to say #NoMoreStolenSisters.
Why Is There Widespread Silence On This Issue?
There are numerous reasons, but at the forefront lie issues stemming from the Indian Relocation Act and federal policies.
Many Native Americans do not live on the tribal lands or reservations (only 22%) where when someone goes missing, the community, and tribal law enforcement band together in search efforts.
78% of America’s Native population lives off of the reservation with 60% of those residing in an urban area. Cities offer few ties to Native cultures, communities, and tribal law enforcement.
Many Urban Indians, people living in cities, fall into the “pipeline of vulnerability”: people of color, people coming out of the foster care system, people of poverty.
According to Janeen Comenote, executive director of the National Urban Indian Family Coalition, “poverty remains one of the most challenging aspects to contemporary urban Indian life.
While I do recognize that a sizable chunk of our population[s] is solidly middle class, every Native person I know has either experienced poverty or has a family member who is. Housing and homelessness remain at the top-of-the-list of challenges.”
Statistics on
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Native Americans today face some extraordinary challenges. These statistics from the Urban Indian Health Institute were compiled from a survey of 71 U.S. cities in 2016.
The numbers speak for themselves: Native American women make up a significant portion of the missing and murdered cases.
Not only is the murder rate ten times higher than the national average for women living on reservations but murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women.
This is startling as Native people only make up 2% of the US overall population. Urban Indian Health Institute reports the youngest MMIW victim was a baby less than one year old and the oldest victim was an 83-year-old.
Stereotypes about
Natives Perpetuate Injustice
Due to the lack of tribal jurisdiction beyond reservation borders, Urban Indians receive less than adequate assistance when a loved one goes missing.
America has written a stereotypical narrative for its First People: “They are lazy, drug addicts, and alcoholics who rely on the government to survive.”
Moreover, this modern stereotype was created through acts of colonization and cultural assimilation.
Pre-colonization, Native societies traditionally revered and honored the sacredness of women.
Women held positions of authority and did a large portion of labor within their camps, but the European colonists with patriarchal views took the women as slaves to the men.
Soon, Native women had been victims of rape, violence, and submission. This mistreatment can be traced throughout America’s history. Natives were viewed as “savages.”
In Andrea Smith’s paper “Not an Indian Tradition: The Sexual Colonization of Native Peoples,” she explores the connection between sexual violence and colonialism on lives of Native people in the United States.
Smith reveals that Natives were viewed as “dirty” for their lack of clothing which in the minds of the colonists made them “polluted with sexual sin.” They were seen as less-than-human—therefore, “rapable.”
Now, when a Native woman is reported missing, these negative stereotypes hinder the search process.
Law enforcement tends to turn a blind eye, fail to take the report seriously, and do little to assist.
The media rarely picks up on the story and if they do, there is normally a negative spin on the story making the victim seem at fault.
Women Leading the Charge
Thankfully, women and men, Native and non-Native, are working together through dozens of organizations to give voice to the MMIW.
MMIW found itself as a movement first in Canada where the grassroots efforts to raise awareness found footing around 2015. Since this time, MMIW has grown and is gaining momentum.
It is because of the efforts of Native women and their families this crisis is gaining momentum.
Women are finding innovative ways to sound their voices on this issue as it is profoundly affecting communities.
New Feature Film, Voices Unheard,
Draws Attention to the MMIW Issue
In 2019, Native Hope embarked on a journey to create a short film to raise awareness about an American crisis: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).
Orlando Skidmore (White Mountain Apache), screenwriter, and cinematographer brought forward his idea for a storyline to highlight some of the issues Natives face when combating systemic apathy surrounding MMIW.
In the film, Marty Coulee is a Native American photographer and entrepreneur living the good life in New York City.
When her Native American business partner, Jess, receives an unexpected opportunity to shoot in the American Southwest, they embark on an adventure to Arizona.
However, the fun is short-lived when Jess vanishes without a trace. Consequently, Marty deals with her past, a system of racism, and false allegations—all while trying to find her friend Jess.
These events fundamentally change Marty. She vows to be a voice for the voices unheard.
Why Thousands March
for Indigenous Women
in Vancouver
Every Valentine’s Day
By Jackie Marchildon, Global Citizen, February 14, 2019
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/women-memorial-march-vancouver/
They have been marching since 1992.
Indigenous women and girls are far more likely to go missing or be murdered in Canada and marches like this serve as a reminder that violence against women has no place in any society.
Every Valentine’s Day since 1992, thousands of people have gathered in the streets of Vancouver to honour the lives of the city’s missing and murdered Indigenous women.
This year is no different, as the annual march organizer told Daily Hive that they will honour 970 women from Downtown Eastside.
The Women’s Memorial March was first launched in response to the murder of Cheryl Ann Joe, a woman from Coast Salish who was brutally murdered in Vancouver, but it has since continued as a way to honour the many lives lost in the area.