Guiding My Spirits Gender-Based Violence Project
The Guiding My Spirits Training was created as a wise practice for communities and organizations to start taking a deeper look into the current ways that gender-based violence and gender-based inequities are perceived. The training was created as an in-person training but work is being done to see if it can work online.
It is meant as a train the trainer for frontline workers that work with those who have experienced gender-based violence and gender-based inequities. Many of our communities are facing high rates of gender-based violence which includes intimate partner violence, family violence,violence against children and many more types of violence. The trainings’ main goal is to provide supports and resources for those working in those frontline spaces. Ensuring that cultural ways of being and knowing are at the centre of how we help those who are experiencing these different situations.
As a way to ensure that culture is at the centre of this training, the foundation of the training is based on the Haudenosaunee Creation Story. The story of how Skywoman fell from Sky World and with the gifts from above and the natural world below coming together to create the world that we currently live on. One of the major lessons within this traditional story is that of the importance of understanding our gifts and what we each bring to the table. The understanding that even though one may be seen as the smallest, they may hold the gift that saves all. When we look at the relationships we see in the creation story we can see that we’re all meant to be held in the same regard man woman child all seen as just as important as the other. That is why the story is the foundation of this training. We need to come back to the understanding that we are all important and that we all hold our own gifts. Once we see that in each other the hope is that relationships built will be based in respect, understanding and love.
This training is broken down into six sections with activities, knowledge sharing and traditional stories woven throughout:
The first section is Building Connections. This section focuses on how we connect with each other. Each of us is on our path or journey, but there is still connections that bind us all together. There will be times when we fall in and out of each others lives but those impression are left, even after one interaction. There is a phrase in Anishinaabe (specifically Ojibway) – baamaapii – which means ‘later, eventually’. This is how to say goodbye – meaning we will connect with each other again, later – even if it’s just with that impression. With colonialism, our connections were meant to be broken and thus we must work continuously to ensure that these connections that bind us together stay connected. This section also focuses on how we ensure that the spaces that we’re creating together are safe spaces for us to have these deep and sometimes hard conversations.
The second section of this training is History. For us to start understanding how we got to where we are when we first start at the beginning. For this section, we start looking at the creation stories that guide our understanding of why we’re here. Then we move into the formation of our communities and the traditional stories that go along with that formation. Moving into our colonial history. All with the intent to understand how we got to the position we are currently in. Trainees are asked to share their own histories, their own understandings in these spaces as well.
From the history, we look at the Terminology that we’re currently using. We look at things like what is equity, what is equality, what is tolerance, what is accommodation, what is acceptance, what is inclusion, and what is gender? How have these terms changed since creation to now? What was gender understanding within our communities prior to contact and after contact? Many Indigenous communities didn’t have strict the divisions when it came to genders and one gender was not seen as above the other. How has it changed in our understanding of gender today?
The fourth section of this training looks at Gender-based Violence (GBV). We look at what is gender-based violence? The focus is to have an understanding of the different kinds of violence and that violence isn’t always physical. We then have a discussion on what resources are needed, for those who have experienced GBV, to have within the community. For this, we use the rings of a tree as they act as a protective rings for the individual at the centre. Using the rings we see what is currently available within the community and where we may need to start putting some resources.
From there, will you look at Restorative Justice as a way to help those who are perpetrating GBV within their communities. We know that things like jail may not always work for our communities and restorative justice is a way for us to take a look at what is needed for that person to heal as well. What are ways that we can ensure that person can come back fully into the community having shown remorse and a willingness to grow and change?
The final section is focused on Staying Connected. We have rebuilt all of these connections to ensure that our communities have the spaces to create relationships built on respect, understanding and love.
A part of this training is also focused on self-care. We ask a lot of our frontline workers, they listen to the stories, they help where they can, but this can take a lot out of them. As a way to help those who are at these frontline spaces, we look at tools and resources for them to ensure that they do not burn out. It is very easy for Indigenous people to push forward but as we know we need to ensure that we are spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally taken care of. If we’re not taking care of each aspect of who we are it can start to impact the other parts of who we are. So, this training looks at how we can take care of each other and ourselves.