What follows is a single conversation with, Pomo, Wailaki, and Maidu indigenous educator and public health expert Rose Hammock on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW). That phrase refers to both an epidemic and a movement that is at the forefront of the modern indigenous civil rights movement. For context we also discuss the colonial history and colonial present of Sonoma County California.
It is a difficult conversation, filled with the pain of a people but also the beauty and resilience of the native people of this land. And we have an instinct that it may be necessary to take some of that pain on to become a true friend and ally to them. Listen but stop at any point you need to.
Toward the end of the discussion Rose gives several offerings of how to play a part in the modern native civil rights movement including observing and marching on The Federal Day of MMIW Awareness, May 5th.
I want to thank Rose for trusting me, a white, Anglo-Saxon man to mediate in this, her presentation on MMIW to the wider Sonoma County Community. Trust is a choice and it is a courageous one.
WEBSITES :
Sovereign Bodies Institute : https://www.sovereign-bodies.org/
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center: https://cimcc.org/
Redbud Resource Group : https://www.redbudresourcegroup.org/who-we-are
Rose Hammock IG : https://www.instagram.com/rosie_hammock/
Local and Global Map of Native Land : https://native-land.ca/