MMIWP FAMILIES 4th Annual Awareness Gathering
Schedule
Sat May 04 2024 at 11:00 am to 06:00 pm
Location
Daybreak Star Cultural Center | Seattle, WA
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SAVE THE DATE! 4th Annual MMIWP & Families Awareness Gathering
Saturday, May 4, 2024
11:00am - 6:00pm
Daybreak Star Cultural Center Pow-Wow Grounds (behind the main building)
5011 Bernie Whitebear Way, Seattle, WA 98199
Parking is available in the Discovery Park North parking lot.
● Impacted MMIWP Families & Survivors
● Guest Speakers TBA
● Honoring selected unsung phenomenal grassroots advocates
● Round Dance (please contact us if you are a round dance song carrier and singer)
● Coastal Jam (Canoe Families Welcome)
● Food will be provided from 11:00am-4:00pm. We will provide Indian tacos, stew, and light refreshments. Donations are greatly appreciated but not required.
We have so much to share with community this year! The cultural healing that MMIWP FAMILIES strives to bring together for our collective healing is what carries each of and lightens our bodies, minds, and spirits as we gather to share our stories and lift one another up. This year we will be gathering at Seattle's historical grounds at Daybreak Star Cultural Center’s Pow-Wow Grounds.
Please join grassroots organization MMIWP FAMILIES in bringing continued awareness to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people and the perpetuation of colonial, gender-based violence across the United States and Canada. We wish to respectfully invite the families of MMIWP to the center, so as to highlight and uplift the stories of you and your loved ones.
Wear Red in Honor of MMIWP. The color red was chosen because it represents the lifeblood and connection between all people, and carries significance for many of our Alaskan Indian, Native American and Canada's First Nations as red is the only color spirits can see. The red dresses aid in calling the spirits of missing and murdered women and girls back to their loved ones.
Please feel free to wear your traditional regalia. Bring your drums, rattles, songs & prayers. If you are an impacted family bring your missing loved ones banner and posters.
If you are a cultural dance group and would like to bring your medicine and prayer to this year's event please reach out to Roxanne White at [email protected]
We will have MMIWP FAMILIES T-shirts available again this year for cost.
This is a clean and sober event. No violence or weapons. The space is safe and sacred. Please bring loving energy and vibes!
This event happens every year by way of a heartfelt community effort. We want to thank Daybreak Star, Muckleshoot Tribe, 350 Seattle, United Urban Indian Education, Puyallup Water Warriors, Mazaska Talks, and SUNN.
questions and all other inquiries can be sent to [email protected].
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About the MMIWP Families organization and our work:
Our mission is to raise consciousness, unite, and demand action for Indigenous women, girls, Two Spirit, LGBTQQIA people, men, and boys who have been murdered or gone missing, tortured, raped, trafficked, and assaulted - those who have not received the proper attention or justice while we experience the tragedies in our communities at horrendous rates.
“According to the US Department of Justice, nearly half of all Native American women have been raped, beaten, or stalked by an intimate partner; one in three will be raped in their lifetime; and on some reservations, women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average.” But many factors complicate the reporting and recording of these numbers, including fear, stigma, legal barriers, racism, sexism, amongst others. Additionally, there is perpetuation of Native women as sexual objects in the mainstream media.
End Fentanyl!: Indigenous people have faced negative impacts on their health and wellness since the country was colonized. These impacts persist to this day and worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular concern is the high rate of opioid and fentanyl-related overdose deaths, which is above the national average.
“the fentanyl crisis that is devastating Native communities across the country,”
“an alarming 33 percent rise in drug overdose deaths,” including from fentanyl, from 2020 to 2021 among American Indians and Alaska Natives. That’s the second largest increase among ethnic groups in America, with Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders leading with a 47 percent rise in deaths.
Land Back!: Best said by NDN Collective LANDBACK is more than just a campaign. It is a political framework that allows us to deepen our relationships across the field of organizing movements working towards true collective liberation. It allows us to envision a world where Black, Indigenous & POC liberation co-exists. It is our political, organizing and narrative framework from which we do the work.
End Human Trafficking: The Native Women’s Association of Canada expands on this, asserting, “Discussing exploitation and trafficking in relation to Indigenous women necessarily means understanding the historical and ongoing colonial sexualization of Indigenous women’s bodies. Since early colonization, Indigenous women have been positioned by Western ideology as inherently violable and less valuable than non-Indigenous, non-racialized bodies.”
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Where is it happening?
Daybreak Star Cultural Center, Seattle,WA,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays: