Advocates block rush hour traffic to rally for safe house

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2016 (3490 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Aboriginal women are not a problem, they’re not an issue, they’re no one’s clients — they’re sacred and they have value, Leslie Spillett declared Thursday on the steps of the legislature.

And women have the right to a safe house to which they can go 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Spillett told about 100 people who walked from the Mount Carmel Clinic Thursday afternoon to demand what they see as their right.

“Reconciliation is seeing us as people, sacred, important,” said Spillett, a long-time activist and executive director of the Ka Ni Kanichihk community employment agency.

“Stigma is such a big problem in this culture,” Spillett said. “You are not the problem — there is no aboriginal issue, we are not the issue.”

The issue is colonization, it’s oppression, it’s racism, she said. “We have to fit in this box or that box — all these boxes are colonial boxes.

“We don’t answer to the politicians. We are not clients of anybody,” she said. “We’re not begging for resources, we deserve resources — our women have value. The resources shut their doors at 4:30 and go home, it doesn’t matter what the hell is happening in the community,” said Spillett.

She demanded somewhere safe that women can go every minute of the week, so that there are no more missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. “We don’t want any more mothers’ broken hearts, any more fathers’ broken hearts,” she said.

March and rally organizer Alaya McIvor told the crowd: “We’re calling on the government to fund a 24/7 home for woimen.”

The marchers carried hand-made signs that read “women are sacred”, “the voice for the voiceless”, “we want a safe haven”, “support us women 24/7”.

Elder Valma Orvis told the group: “So many women have been working for a safe house 24/7 for such a long time. I hope and pray they get that soon.”

Earlier, Greg Selinger expressed support for a safe house without making a specific commitment.

“I think we have to continually improve services to people that are sexually exploited or victims of domestic violence,” the NDP leader said. “We’re very committed to working with our partners to make sure that those things are done, whether it’s through Tracia’s Trust, whether it’s through murdered and missing women and girls and the initiatives we’re going to take there, or whether it’s on other issues such as domestic violence.

“We are committed to addressing those issues as we go forward,” Selinger said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca