Image Credit: Aonnome
Happy Monday everyone! As many of you know, over the holidays I took a break from Cameos, but I am back at it with your help and looking forward to supporting as many charitable organizations as possible. Plus, Cameo just launched a new feature called Cameo Calls that I am really enjoying. If you haven’t heard of Cameo Calls before they are 5-minute live video calls where we can talk about anything your heart desires in REAL time. It’s $250 dollars and every single penny is donated back to charity. Want to join me on my next Cameo Call? In my last attempt doing these calls, I had a few technical difficulties, but I promise I am looking at my calendar as we speak to solidify another day, stay tuned!
Before we dive into this blog post, it’s important for me to honour the territory where my journey began. I acknowledge the territory that I was blessed to be born and raised on is the ancestral, unceded territory of the Beaver Cree, Dene Territory, and Métis People. And in honour of the upcoming National Day of Awareness for MMIWG2S, on May 5th. I wanted to support an organization that helps the victims and their family’s mental and emotional wellbeing in my hometown of Peace River, Alberta.
This month, we decided to support not one but TWO non-profit organizations: the Peace River Sisters in Spirit and The Pacific Association First Nations Women. With YOUR help through Cameo, we were able to raise $6,383.71 CAD to support these amazing non-profit local organizations. For those of you that don’t know, I was born and raised in Peace River and it feels so good to be able to continue to connect with my community this way!
Image Credit: Indigenous Peoples Movement
Peace River Sisters in Spirit (PRSIS):
The Peace River Sisters In Spirit (PRSIS) is a grassroots, unfunded group of matriarchs. They aim to raise awareness on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, foster change, and facilitate the healing process. With this donation, they intend to support the MMIWG2S victims’ families as they undertake lengthy legal battles. And create opportunities for healing and awareness.
The Pacific Association First Nations Women:
The Pacific Association First Nations Women has been in existence since 1981 and is 100% Indigenous woman managed and led. They have been providing counseling for families of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls and have created an Indigenous Women’s Council that will work together to create a local action plan to implement the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry. The funds received will be used to support their counseling program and the families who access it.
“We are grateful to those in [the] community who wish to partner with us and support our programs and services, to uplift Indigenous women and strengthen families. Please visit our website for more information and how you can support the work we do.” said Diana Day, Lead Matriarch.
Image Credit: The Pacific Association First Nations Women
Did you know?
- Indigenous women and girls are five times more likely to experience violence than any other population in Canada and this violence tends to result in more serious harm.
- Indigenous women make up 16% of all female homicide victims, and 11% of missing women, even though Indigenous people make up 4.3% of the population of Canada.
- Violence against Indigenous women and girls is systemic and a national crisis that requires urgent, informed and collaborative action.
- Indigenous women are three times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence.
- Current public data on MMIWG oversimplifies and underrepresents the scale of the issue, yet still demonstrates a complex and pervasive pattern of violence against Indigenous women and girls who are often targeted because of their gender and Indigenous identity.
- The 2014 RCMP Operational Overview notes that police recorded 1,017 incidents of Aboriginal female homicides between 1980 and 2012 and 164 missing Aboriginal female investigations dating back to 1952. There have been a number of reports indicating numbers are significantly higher.
- From 2001 to 2014 the average rate of homicides involving Indigenous female victims was four times higher than that of homicides involving non-Indigenous female victims.
Above information credit to : Assembly of First Nations
How long are we going to stand by and continue to allow these atrocities to take place and ignore the normalized violence against Indigenous bodies? Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse peoples matter! Their Lives Matter PERIOD.
I am sickened everytime I hear about a missing Indigenous person and I’m sure that I am not even aware of the half of them. I am appalled by these statistics. It is time for us to come together and put an end to the violence Indigenous peoples face and find more ways to support the victims, their families and communities so they can commence the healing process.
The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirited folk (MMIWG2S) is on May 5, 2021
Image Credit: Selene
What can you do?
- Wear Red
- Create & Share: a MMIWG2S No More Stolen Sisters’ poster or social post
- Support & Follow: @CarrierSekaniTribalCouncil @matriarch.movement @butterfliesinspirit @decolonialclothing @decolonizefirst @theindigenousfoundation @fsismmiwg2s
- If you are in the position to give please do.
- Show compassion and solidarity, intervene when you see something suspicious.
- Share the Hope for Wellness toll-free Help Line: 1-855-242-3310 immediate mental health counselling and crisis intervention to all Indigenous peoples across Canada.
- Keep becoming more aware of the issues impacting members of your community and demand tangible change to eliminate harm
- Please send us your NGO’s to support and we will update this post!
If you booked a Cameo this last month, thank you for your continuous support and giving back to local charities and initiatives!
xo
Jilly
