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Violence Against Indigenous Womxn*: Sexism, Colonialism and Health Equity

On Jan. 10, 2019, Taté Walker (they/them) presented on the violence and marginalization faced by Indigenous womxn*, primarily due to the ongoing, chronic impacts of settler colonialism. Walker, who is Lakota and a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, is an Indigenous rights activist and award-winning multimedia storyteller. Walker observed that the U.S. murder rate for Indigenous womxn in some tribal communities is 10 times the national average; that one in three Indigenous womxn will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime; and that domestic violence rates are seven times higher for Indigenous womxn than womxn from other demographics. Walker’s presentation provided context to these and other violent realities from cultural, historical, systemic and gender-based viewpoints, and they provided strategies for demanding and achieving justice for Indigenous womxn and their communities.

* “Womxn” is an intentionally used alternative spelling that rejects patriarchy in language by removing “men” as the root of “women”; and that proactively includes transgender womxn, female-assigned genderqueer/gender non-conforming people and cisgender womxn.

Event recap: Historical Trauma Against Indigenous People Isn’t Just Historical

Full video and podcast recordings of the event are available below. You can also download the video here. (Downloading may take several minutes due to the size of the file.)

Learn about the health equity issues affecting Coloradans at Collective Colorado, a publication of The Colorado Trust.