“Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies” report published

Last month, and after two years in the making, WEA and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network officially launched “Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies: Building an Indigenous Response to Environmental Violence” a community-based report and toolkit for action. But we didn’t want it to be just a launch; instead, we wanted to use that moment as a unique opportunity to mobilize our community and raise our voices to bring awareness to the connection between violence on the land and the destructive impacts it has on the health and safety of Indigenous women. That’s what the #LandBodyDefense Week of Action on June 6-10, 2016 was all about.

And we want to be sure that everyone who took part in this call to action knows that your participation, engagement and support during the Week of Action made all the difference.

• On Twitter, more than 1,025 friends and allies shared and posted tweets using the #LandBodyDefense hashtag, helping us to reach nearly 200,000 people and organizations.
• On Facebook, hundreds of you visited the Week of Action event page, and your messages, posts and shares helped us to reach nearly 3,000 people and organizations.
• Organizations and media outlets also featured stories or blogs about this work as well, including: TeleSur, Story of Stuff, Sierra Club, and Planet Experts.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing this community-based report and toolkit with your networks, and for posting your own “Hand to the Land” or chestplate stencil photos. Thank you especially for believing in the urgent need to support Indigenous women and young people’s messages of resistance.

This work is just the beginning. Over the next few months, please continue to share photos and stories related to the social impacts of extreme energy extraction using the #LandBodyDefense hashtag. WEA will also be sharing more on this work and how the resources in the toolkit are being used across impacted communities. Be sure to stay connected!