Sisseton, SD - Women's Issues (Post 5)

We were really excited to be able to sleep in until 8:30 this morning. It turns out that we needed the rest, because today was a serious day for our group. We had the opportunity to watch Listen to the Grandmothers and Rape on the Reservation at Wac'ang'a.

Listen to the Grandmothers featured elders in native communities (five women and two men) sharing their wisdom about how colonization changed native culture. They said that men lost the great respect once held for women in the community, and this led to increased domestic violence in sexual assault- something previously unheard of among native people.

Rape on the Reservation discusses the culture of rape and sexual violence that is prevalent in Native American communities, especially among young men. Because of the sensitive content of the film, many of our group members reacted emotionally. This reaction lead to good conversation with the women of Wac'ang'a, and we are honored that they have shared so much of their lives with us.

We took a break after the documentaries to work on our talking sticks slash fall asleep on the coveted air mattresses. Grilled Cheese Queen Dawn Schillinger made some lunch, and Madison tried to kill Ali with a king-sized Snickers bar.

After lunch, we put together 300 ribbons to be displayed on lockers at the local high school. Three purple ribbons will be displayed for every one orange ribbon, which demonstrates that 1 in 4 teenagers will experience dating violence. We also hung out with some of the young men in the Engaging Boys to Men program and made posters promoting awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault in native culture. We came up with some pretty sweet graphics.


Here are the Sistas making the ribbons for abuse awareness for the high school.

Stir Friars (sic) Madison and Rachel whipped up dinner that some participants lovingly described as "slop." Regardless of its texture, the meal was exquisite.

We ended the night with more emotional and engaging reflection that really helped us define why we are here on this trip. Something clicked for all of us, leading us into the end of this trip with a focus and purpose that we were grasping for up until then.

As always, we wish all you MABers and supporters out there a merry evening from DQ and MeTV in Sisseton.

Exquisitely,

Sisseton Sistas
(Contributing Writers Rachel and Kaitlyn, Supervising Editors Veronica and Dawn)

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