Restoration Magazine

In this Restoration edition, we highlight important priority issues and policies for us to make connections with beyond the shelter doors and center women’s needs.

“We can’t just stop because VAWA has given us the money to do this work. We have to make those connections beyond those shelter doors. That’s what it’s all about. We need to work in the trenches, but we have to make these connections outside those shelter doors to say this is how we can stop violence against women.”—Tillie Black Bear¹

We’re monitoring and advocating for local, regional, national, and international actions, including in:

• Federal court cases,
• Hate crimes committed against LGBTQ2S+,
• Health, housing, and economic justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,
• The spectrum of violence against Indigenous women, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, missing and murdered,
• The full realization of the federal trust responsibility, and • Native advocacy and organizing efforts engaging with state, federal, and UN policymakers.

Reclaiming and deepening Tribal and Native Hawaiian knowledge, including lessons learned and how to respond to mistakes, disagreement, or conflict, is essential for developing our capacities to identify, implement, and expand responses that restore sovereignty and increase Native women’s and all community members’ safety.

“Even in thought, women are sacred.”—White Buffalo Calf Woman teaching.

Emmonak Women’s Shelter Resource Advocate Coordinator Tasha Paukan said, “The only way that we can help our people is if we do something about it.”² We see, over the years, the increase of analysis, organizations, and actions aimed at or helping to restore sovereignty and end violence against Indigenous women and related injustices. This growth is reflected in:

• The ongoing development of local, Tribal responses to violence against women,
• The grassroots organizing, resulting in enhancements within reauthorizations over the past 40 years of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) and the past 30 years of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which became federal laws in 1984 and 1994, respectively,
• The increase and maturation of Native organizations, including those contributing to Restoration and multiple generations of leaders over the past 40+ years, 
• The groundswell demanding accountability for and the prevention of missing and murdered Indigenous Women and relatives at the Tribal, state, federal, and international levels, and
• Changes in other federal and state laws and policies, such as on June 2, the 100th anniversary of the Snyder Act, also known as the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. 

In this edition, we also continue to encourage you to deepen your understanding and exercise your responsibilities with others grounded in Indigenous teachings and laws, U.S. laws and policies, fundamental human rights, as well as rights affirmed for Indigenous peoples in the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including:³

• As law enforcement officials protect, serve, and do NOT sexually assault the citizens they respond to,
• As court officials and policymakers,
• As researchers and evaluators,
• As peer students, educators, and school officials,
• As health care, housing, and financial professionals,
• As advocates, community members, relatives, and
• As citizens with the right and responsibility to vote in elections and election officials.

This July also marks 10 years since Tillie Black Bear started her journey back to the spirit world. On pages 20-21, we share her family’s memories of Tillie‘s love, patience, joy, and perseverance, which are important skills for survivors, advocates, and leaders to exercise. We will celebrate Tillie and her legacy with a women’s gathering to take important or revolutionary time for self-care and connecting with each other for support and laughter, which we all need to recharge regularly.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”—Audre Lorde⁴

Please subscribe and share Restoration with your networks of family, friends, coworkers, first responders, court officials, health care providers, Native housing authorities, teachers and school administrators, and policymakers to educate and organize for social change, restoring sovereignty to increase women’s safety. 

Paula S. Julian
(Washté Wiya, Good Woman) Filipina
Editor, Restoration of Native Sovereignty and Safety for Native Women
Senior Policy Specialist, NIWRC.

<sup>1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0EW84p0_Q 
2. https://www.yupikwomen.org/news-and-updates/ywc-psa/
3. https://indianlaw.org/undrip/home
4. https://hunter.cuny.edu/news/audre-lorde-now-series-self-care-as-political-welfare/</sup>