Restoration Magazine

Continue Organizing for May 2022 National Actions

With the generous non-federal financial support of The Vadon Foundation, NIWRC is pleased to announce the publication of a Restoration Special Edition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The Special Edition provides an uncensored analysis of the systemic barriers Indigenous women face, lifting the voices of family members of MMIW, and sharing the organizing actions taking place across the country calling for justice for MMIW.

Building upon over a decade of collaborative efforts, during the last year NIWRC staff facilitated the formation of two distinct national working collectives: a National Partners Work Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women made up of six long-standing national sister organizations working to address violence against Indigenous women, and a Family Advisory Group of family members impacted by MMIW to continually inform our advocacy.

“The NIWRC and National Partners developed a 6-Point Action Plan to Reform Current Systemic Barriers and Restore Safety of Indigenous Women, including Native Hawaiian Women as the Indigenous People of the Hawaiian Islands,” said Rose Quilt, Yakama, Director of Policy and Research, NIWRC. “Each of the six points offers a strategic foundational direction to address violence against Indigenous women.”

Collectively, we organized the 2021 National Week of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women culminating in the May 5th National Day of Awareness for MMIW. The May 2021 national actions reached more than 45.9 million people worldwide. It spotlighted the crisis of MMIW to raise awareness and hold the United States accountable for failing to change the laws and policies that endanger the lives of Indigenous women and peoples.

“We hope the Restoration Special Edition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women provides the support and lessons for communities to organize for the foundational changes needed to restore safety in the lives of Indigenous women.”

—Lucy Simpson, Diné, Executive Director, NIWRC

This national organizing was based on a shared Indigenous worldview to explain the spectrum of violence and crisis of MMIW, not as the result of single separate acts, but a continuum of violence condoned by the United States through systemic legal and policy barriers directed at the destruction of Indian Nations since contact. This Indigenous worldview also provides a source of inspiration and a collective knowledge that the shared cultural beliefs of respect and spirituality can restore and strengthen the sacred status held by women within their Nations.

The changes taking place in this country to address the crisis of MMIW are the result of grassroots organizing efforts by the families, advocates, communities, and the Indian Nations of MMIW. In this Special Edition of Restoration, we highlight joint efforts to honor MMIW and call for justice for Indigenous women to share examples of organizing actions we hope will spread across all communities during the 2022 National Week of Action, culminating into the National Day of Awareness for MMIW on May 5th.