Coalition combats violence

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Raising public awareness and promoting education on violence against women in the Aboriginal community has become the prime mission of the Aboriginal Women Against Violence Everywhere Coalition (AWAVE). Formed by Status of Women Canada (SWC) last December, this organization is spending $1 million to develop a four-year plan to tackle the issue of physical and sexual assault.

Sherry Lewis, co-chair of AWAVE and executive director for the Native Women's Association of Canada, said "I think the intergenerational impacts of violence in Aboriginal communities is real. We are finding that it's become a normalized process in many communities. Women don't question any longer because their sisters, their mothers, their aunts, their grandmothers, their great-grandmothers may have experienced abuse... We need to be able to educate Aboriginal women about their human rights, that they have a right to live free of violence and we're here to help them understand that and to get involved in a community in a way that they feel comfortable and that it doesn't put them at risk."

According to SWC, approximately 51 per cent of Canadian women aged 16 and older have been victims of some form of violence. Worse, a 2002 report produced by the Native Women's Association of Canada (Submission to the Special Rapporteur Investigating the Violations of Indigenous Human Rights) shows 91 per cent of Aboriginal women have experienced physical abuse and 61 per cent have suffered sexual abuse.

AWAVE's action plan will be completed this summer and presented to SWC in Toronto. Implementation will take place within the following three years.

AWAVE is comprised of the National Aboriginal Women's Circle Against Violence, Native Women's Association of Canada, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association of Canada, Quebec Native Women Inc. and the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada. Together, they have been conducting research on the cause and effects of violence against women in their respective communities.

Lewis said their strategy might include ways that women's service networks could become better integrated to assist Aboriginal women. She added there could also be Aboriginal versions of successful events such as Take Back the Night-a series of rallies, speeches and community events that aim to stop violence.

"We can mirror some of the successful actions that the women's community has done in general across Canada and ... begin to develop our own innovative approaches that would touch Aboriginal women, so they can begin to feel that there is support out there when they are ready to change that cycle of abuse that may be occurring at various communities," said Lewis.

Lewis hopes to present AWAVE's completed plan to the federal government. There is also talk about holding annual conferences, which would build on the work AWAVE is doing in its start-up phase.

"For the first couple of years of the strategic plan, it looks at what we had initially put forward and then it begins to evolve as situations are changing (and) as we understand communities better so that we can keep it as living document. So there'll be lots of opportunities. I'm hoping to present this at various (government) levels, so that we will continue to keep that momentum going."

"I think that the work is so critical, it will take us more than four years for that ball to be rolling very well and to have huge impacts and changes in individual Aboriginal women's lives. It's a huge task."