When we think about data, and how it’s been gathered, is that, from marginalized communities, it was never gathered to help or serve us. It was primarily done to show the deficits in our communities, to show where there are gaps. And it’s always done from a deficit-based framework. They talk about how our communities have the highest rates of obesity, have the highest rates of diabetes, highest rates of infant mortality. How our people may be experiencing high rates of opiate misuse.
What they don’t talk about is the strengths of our community. What we know, particularly for indigenous people, is that there was a genocide and assimilation policies and termination policies that were perpetuated against us. If they had worked, we wouldn’t be here. And so we were always strength-based people, who passed on and continued knowledge systems regardless of people who tried to destroy us.
Seattle Indian Health Board
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report Released
From the Urban Indian Health Institute:
We released a report today on the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in urban areas. This first-of-its-kind report aims to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the MMIWG crisis in urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities and the institutional practices that allow them to disappear not once, but three times—in life, in the media, and in the data.
Read the report, listen to the stories, and help us end the violence. #MMIWG#DecolonizeData #NotInvisible #NoMoreStolenSisters #urbanMMIWG
Read the full report here
*This report contains strong language about violence against Native women and girls.
Turtle Talk 