Sisters in Solidarity are about action; bringing awareness to the plight of Canada’s Indigenous people

BY GLORIA O’KOYE

It has been over more than a year since the discovery of the unmarked graves of residential school children sparked a nationwide and international outcry.

The world probed more in-depth and criticized Canada’s dark history of mistreating the indigenous communities. As more unmarked graves were uncovered across the nation, there was more media coverage on: residential school survivors, 60’s Scoop survivors, missing and murdered indigenous women, and light shed on the residential school to prison pipeline.

The politicians continued to make public apologies and for years talked about ‘reconciliation.’ However, behind the scenes they continue to: allow the water crisis in the reserves, forcing pipelines into Wet’suwet’en, destroying old-growth in Fairy Creek, criminalizing Land and Water Defenders, and continuing to sue families who want to access records to find closure of their loved ones.

The communities, survivors, and elders continuously share their truths and are constantly putting a strain on their well-being because they relive their trauma and continuously receive backlash. Many injustices are happening in the world and there is no action to back the ‘reconciliation’ conversations.

Last month, I was asked by a good friend of mine to be part of a grassroots movement called ‘Sisters in Solidarity,’ which is a collective of indigenous and allied women who will continue to shed light on the issues that happen across Turtle Island. It has been a while since I last wrote an article and I wanted to take this time to share with everyone how to support the movement.

On July 1^st, the Sisters in Solidarity held an event to bring awareness to IRSS, 60’s Scoop, human trafficking, Indigenous prisoners, police brutality, and much more. We asked everyone to support us with monetary donations and the funds helped in the preparation of the event.

The honorariums the funds were raised for were presented to:

Elder & Knowledge Keepers

Guest Speakers

Drum Group: Gray Buffalo Singers from Saskatchewan

Dancers

Performers

Supplies Needed

If you have any questions and want to learn more about how you can support us, you can find us on our Facebook page Sister’s In Solidarity (Toronto).