Women return home after months on the move

Aboriginal Women on the Move safely returned to their community after a 7,200 kilometre bike tour across the country to raise awareness about family violence in First Nation communities.

Cyclists Donna Metallic, Sheila Swasson and Chi Metallic make up Women on the Move. They began their awareness cycle on May 28 in Mission, B.C. and completed the three-month journey that took them all the way to Newfoundland by Aug. 11. They are now back home in Listuguj, Que

The Aboriginal Women on the Move across Canada cycle tour was an initiative that Swasson brought to the forefront in hopes of bringing attention to the social and health issues of family violence.

According to information from the Canadian Women's Foundation Web site, www.cdnwomen.org, about 50 per cent of women in Canada have experienced some form of violence. In addition, every minute of the day, either a woman or child is sexually assaulted. The CWF also says that this violent behavior leads to one or two women per week who are murdered by a partner or ex-partner in Canada. Some of these facts can also be found at aboriginalwomenonthemove.org, the trio's Web site.

As a supervisor for 15 years at the Have House shelter, Swasson said there are numerous factors to consider working in the family violence area.

"It's not just an issue about women and children, but men and communities on the whole," said the 41-year-old.

"According to the statistics that we have come across, you are looking at eight out of 10 Aboriginal women that are victims of violence compared to, I believe, one out of 10 in comparison to the Canadian population," said Swasson. "Aboriginal women between the ages of 25 and 40 are five times [more] at risk of being a victim of violence compared to a woman in the non-Native population."

Windspeaker asked Swasson what she thinks might contribute to the high volume of violence against women. Although she is asked this question quite often, "it's difficult to pinpoint just one of the many factors," she said.

"We look back at our own history as Aboriginal people, like the impacts of colonization, the residential school, the Indian Act, poverty and the high-unemployment rate," said Swasson. "There are different factors that play into abuse."

When approached with the idea of the long cycle trip, both Donna and Chi Metallic, mother and daughter, jumped at the opportunity to promote positive changes in First Nation communities. Donna is the director of community health under the Listuguj First Nation government. Chi is a youth protection delegate with the Gesgapegiag First Nation.

Although the cycle tour is over, there are a number of ways listed on the women's Web site in which people can still get involved to put a stop to family violence. For example, speaking out against violence or organizing an information session on family violence in your community are a couple of ways to contribute to the anti-violence movement.

"In order to keep the message flowing we've arranged for our Web site to remain active for another year," said Swasson. "We're hoping that through our partner, the National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence, that we would also be able to work together and continue to get that message out there."

During a phone interview with Swasson a week and a half after the end of the bike tour, she said that the women are focused on one objective right now and that's to keep the information flowing.

"We are encouraging communities to be in contact with us and share with us the different programs and services that are available in their communities," said Swasson. "We also want them to share with us some of their best practices as to what is working in their communities to address the issue of family violence and violence against women."

Swasson told Windspeaker that hosting this initiative as an annual event would be ideal, however she said that the trio would be happy to see other Aboriginal women get involved.

"This is not the end of boriginal Women On The Move," said Swasson. "I hope that we can pass the torch on to other Aboriginal women who would be interested in doing this. If there's any groups out there that would want to do this and would need our support and help, just give us a call and we would be more than happy to share our experiences with them."