Voicing Survivance: New Care Pathways for Sexual Assault Survivors & the Disruption of Chronic Pain Later in Life

This project is about changing how care is provided to Indigenous survivors of sexual assault, gender-based violence, including forced and coerced sterilization, and folks with complex PTSD.

We aim to follow and build on the Survivors’ Agenda and Circle for Reproductive Justice, plans provided by survivors and service providers in Northern BC, Yukon, Northern Ontario, and from Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast, to improve care, guided by Matriarchal principles and led by the community. We will visit communities in the coming year to explore, create and contribute to improving care and well-being.

Returning Storywork to Community

An invitation to shape the Survivor’s Agenda for Cultural Care in your community. 

What A Gathering Might Look Like 

At a time and place that you determine, in whatever form fits your Community and its own activities, we might support:

- Ceremony, language, or land events
- A workshop folded into a health conference already on your calendar
- Land-based learning, foraging, or feasting
- Sitting in circle
- Beading, land weaving, hide work, and textiles
- Supporting women’s hunting camps or similar fall time activities
- A poster series, graphic design, or photo projects
- Garden planning projects that call the land as a helper
- Something customary that your Community names or provides guidance with that we have not yet creatively imagined 

Funding: An Indigenous Gender and Wellness Knowledge Sharing grant supports approximately $7,000 per Community, or approximately $21,000 where one Community hosts two others in a region. Funds may go to honoraria, catering, supplies, or materials.