National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault

I s s u e 2 F a l l 2 0 0 5

Happy Autumn! Welcome to Sister Pages Fall 2005 E-Newsletter! In this issue, we are including information about the reauthorization of VAWA; stories related to our communities, upcoming national conferences, and a little bit of poetry.

It's been an eventful Summer and it looks like the Fall is going to be even busier! We thank all of you for continuing to support our efforts.

National News and Updates:

Hurricane Katrina SCESA has joined other national violence against women organizations to support sexual assault victims and programs impacted by Hurricane Katrina. There are a number of funds being set up to receive donations to provide assistance. SCESA is trying to connect with culturally specific programs in the affected states to ensure that the needs of Communities of Color are included and the funds are accessible to these programs. WE NEED YOUR HELP to identify these programs. If you are aware of a culturally specific program or victims in any of the affected states that need assistance please call us or send us an email. More information about funds can also be found at: ( http://relieffundforsexualassaultvictims.org/) this is the Relief Fund for Sexual Assault Victims and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (nnedv.org).

SCESA Women of Color Leadership Institute In July, we held our Women of Color Leadership Institute 2005 in San Juan, . It was a wonderful success. We had over 150 Women of Color attend from all across the country including Sisters from the Virgin Islands and local programs in Puerto Rico. This year we also had participation from high school and college students. Overall the Institute received much praise and positive remarks. Participants consistently noted the opportunity to come together learn, share experiences and just “be in a space” with Women of Color as critical to what made this Institute a success. Comments included “The information shared and the knowledge of the presenters was amazing”...“Sessions offered very specific information on how to do the work” …. “This was an excellent gathering, well organized and practical”….“The information gained was valuable but it was the overall feeling of sisterhood”…”I finally realized that we are powerful women”…...”I have a better appreciation for the perspective of other Women of Color”...”This was a life changing experience”

Puerto Rican Leader passed on Many are mourning the recent death of nationalist leader Don Filiberto Ojeda-Ríos. Filberto Ojeda-Rios died on September 23, 2005 on a Puerto Rican national holiday commemorating el (organized outcry for liberation from Spanish regime in 1868). This was a sacred day for Puerto Rico’s movement towards independence. Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was the leader of the Boricua Popular Army—also known as Los Macheteros ("The Machete Wielders"), and previously known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a clandestine paramilitary organization supporting the independence of Puerto Rico.

The National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA) is a Women of Color-led nonprofit committed to ensuring that systems-wide policies and social change initiatives related to sexual assault are informed by critical input and direction of women of color. P a g e 2 Policy Update: Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act 2005

Recently, both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed versions of the Violence Against Women Act. This reauthorization is critical to continue much needed services and to respond to gaps in current services.

This is great news but we still have a little way to go. We need Congress to agree on one bill that can then go to the President for his signature. Coming up with one bill is a process within itself. We need to ensure that throughout this process the needs of Communities of Color are not left out. We need to be concerned because in the House version, there was a damaging amendment related to racial/ethnic communities that was passed. This amendment stripped the VAWA reauthorization bill of language that aimed specifically to help racial/ethnic communities.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the committee along with Rep Hilda Solis (D-CA), strongly opposed the amendment, making an argument for the needs of Communities of Color when impacted by violence against women. The amendment barely passed, 225 to 191. This debate made history for us as Advocates working to end violence against women in racial/ethnic communities. Issues pertaining to Communities of Color were heard on the floor of the House of Representatives, which itself is a huge accomplishment. However, we just don’t want healthy debate– we want true social change for our communities.

The amendment can still be addressed during the process of coming up with a final bill, but not without your help. We will be calling on you to contact your House of Representatives and members of the Senate making a plea for this critical language about racial and ethnic communities to be included in the final version of VAWA.

Stay tuned!

For more information, contact Luz Marquez-Benbow, 860.693.2031 or [email protected]

P a g e 3 Art and activism…...

Assata’s Roar

By Leah Prescott

And I be there screaming NOOOO less! For how could they do this to my: SISTA, BROTHA, ELDERS, ANCESTORS, BABIES Who be beaten into submission Who’s pelvis has been contaminated by Power thirsty blood hungry villains Not seeking ‘cuz nipples be ripe It be about power Not reaching out ‘cuz “abs” be tight Let’s talk about control! The control you wish you had so you violate innocence Stolen ripped from the core The control you gotta have so you destroy Ain’t planning on building unless it’s satan’s armies! ‘Cuz you rob the youngest to the oldest SO I SAY NOOOO! For sista’s that didn’t speak! For brotha’s that couldn’t speak! For babies raped without words to speak! For nations or disabled persons! For granny’s & pop-pop’s lying under covers scared of rapists Disguised as nurses! For inmates locked in hell all by themselves! Unwilling, unwanted, non-consensual gestures Let me see them try to rape the thoughts of NO They can’t! It’s Final! Complete! But oppression be the keys that LOCK Mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, grandparents She, he me, you, WE Down against our will not of our own consent written or verbal Ripping away our innocence Using sex as a weapon I SAY NO! YOU SAY NO! WE SAY NOOOO Roundup of Immigrants in Shelter Reveals Rising Tensions

By CHAD TERHUNE and EVAN PÉREZ P a g e 4 This article appeared in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 3, 2005; Page B1

LONG BEACH, Miss. -- Last Wednesday, police and the U.S. Marshals Service swept into a Red Cross shelter for hurricane refugees here. They blocked the parking lot and exits and demanded identification from about 60 people who looked Hispanic, including some pulled out of the shower and bathroom, according to witnesses. The shelter residents were told to leave within two days or else they would be deported.

"They asked me where I wanted to go: to Houston, Atlanta or back to Mexico," said Jose Luis Rivera, 39 years old and an undocumented construction worker from Veracruz, Mexico. Mr. Rivera said he had been sleeping in a tent outside the large shelter building since Hurricane Katrina struck just over a month ago, flooding his second- story apartment in nearby Pass Christian and destroying all his belongings, including a pickup truck. "I lost everything I own in the storm. But they said they didn't care. They told us that if we didn't leave they would return on Friday with buses to take us away," he said.

Fearful they would be forced to leave the country, Mr. Rivera and most of the other Hispanic men left the Red Cross shelter the next morning. Local contractors agreed to house workers they are hiring for cleanup work and other jobs in tents at worksites. Mr. Rivera set up his tent at a Baptist church that told him it had room for Hispanics from the shelter.

The incident was confirmed by the shelter's staff, including an assistant shelter manager and volunteer Jesse A. Acosta, who said he, too, was asked by a local police officer to show identification. After flashing his Red Cross badge, Mr. Acosta, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, was told to show another form of ID and then had to wait 20 minutes while being screened for outstanding arrest warrants. The line of men, women and children included no whites or African-Americans, he said.

"I was singled out because of my skin," Mr. Acosta said. "These people went through Katrina and went there to be taken care of and not to be hassled."

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals assisting in Long Beach said the Wednesday night incident was led by the Harrison County Sheriff's office, and referred calls to it.

Harrison County Sheriff's Department Capt. Windy Swetman said no one at the shelter was threatened with deportation, adding that law-enforcement officials wanted to make sure everyone staying at the shelter had been displaced by the hurricane. "We were concerned with the growing numbers of the Hispanic population and whether or not we had displaced residents of southern Mississippi from the hurricane or workers brought in from other areas using the shelter as base camp," he said. Contractors, not relief groups, are responsible for providing housing to workers, he added.

Police also were concerned about reports of drinking, marijuana use and fights among Hispanic men living in tents outside the shelter building, according to Capt. Swetman. "This was more of a humanitarian mission," Capt. Swetman said. On Thursday, the day after the incident, officers told Red Cross workers they were responding to a 911 call about a Mexican-American at the shelter. Red Cross workers said they didn't alert police.

Lea Stokes, a Mississippi state spokeswoman, referred calls about the incident to the Gov. Haley Barbour's Department of Public Safety. Reached during a meeting yesterday, Warren Strain, a spokesman for the public safety department, said he couldn't immediately answer questions. He didn't return a call seeking comment.

P a g e 5

Roundup of Immigrants in Shelter Reveals Rising Tensions continues….

The roundup at the Red Cross center underscores deeper social and economic tensions that are surfacing as areas battered by Katrina and Rita struggle through what will be a frustratingly long recovery. Some communities will need to house thousands of displaced storm victims for months at least, further straining government agencies and relief groups. Meanwhile, undocumented workers are likely to be a major part of the massive cleanup and rebuilding, competing for jobs against some non-Hispanics thrown out of work by the hurricanes.

Before Hurricane Katrina, small communities along Mississippi's Gulf Coast, with its plentiful casino, seafood industry and construction jobs, had increasingly become a draw for immigrant workers. In 2004, persons of Hispanic or Latino origin formed about 2.6% of the population in coastal Harrison County, where Long Beach is located, compared with 1.4% in Mississippi statewide, according to U.S. Census estimates.

Immigrant groups say the incident in Long Beach is the latest example of how immigrant laborers are falling through the cracks of disaster recovery in the aftermath of the disastrous hurricanes that have pounded the Gulf Coast. Last year, thousands of immigrants in Florida were overlooked in the relief operation, and many feared asking for aid would lead to their arrest.

"These people have already lost everything they had, and now they have been victimized all over again," said Vicky Cintra, emergency outreach coordinator for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, a coalition of civil rights, religious and community groups in Jackson, Miss.

Under government rules, illegal workers aren't eligible for most of the government aid made available to storm victims, such as cash grants and loans for emergency expenses and home repairs. But operations run by the Red Cross, churches and other nonprofit charities don't distinguish among storm victims and will grant them financial aid and other help.

Steve Bayer, the local spokesman for the Red Cross, said the organization doesn't ask about citizenship status when offering shelter or providing money after a disaster, and didn't ask the police and marshals to come to the shelter, where about 175 people were living. "We told them this is not the proper procedure to follow," he said. "The people there have been treated with respect by the Red Cross. ... We don't profile people."

Jana Zehner, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross in Washington, said the organization's security chief met with local and federal officials to discuss how to avoid similar incidents. After the police visit, Red Cross staff helped some of the Latinos who were nervous about staying find another place to live.

In the aftermath of the hurricanes, residents and immigrants have received mixed messages on how welcome the immigrant labor force, which likely will form a major part of the reconstruction effort, will be. In early September, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would temporarily relax its policies and not prosecute contractors who don't check the legal status of workers.

While not necessarily a suspension of immigration law, the department made the move "to make sure that people who are otherwise able to work, and now need employment, wouldn't be stopped from working," said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. The measure expires in mid-October.

On Thursday, a day after the roundup, a senior federal marshal showed up at the Red Cross shelter in Long Beach, according to people who were there. "He told us that he had not given the officers permission to treat us that way," Mr. Rivera said, but he decided to leave anyway.

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112830055169458141.html A story that no one wanted told

By ANDREW HANON P a g e 6 Reprinted from Edmonton Sun 09/30/2005

As far as Jeremy Torrie's concerned, it's a story that must be told. And given what's happening on the streets of Edmonton and Vancouver, the more people who hear the tale, the better.

In two weeks Torrie, a Winnipeg filmmaker, will begin shooting a feature movie based on Warren Goulding's 2001 book, Just Another Indian - A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference.

It's the story of John Martin Crawford, a hulking, greasy, lowlife drifter currently serving life in a Saskatchewan penitentiary for killing three aboriginal prostitutes in Saskatoon in the 1990s. Years earlier, he did time for manslaughter for the death of another prostitute in Lethbridge. He is suspected of several other killings.

Goulding's book is a stinging indictment of Canadian society's cold indifference to the plight of so many aboriginal women. At the time of the case, Crawford was the second-most deadly serial killer in Canadian history, next to depraved child- murderer Clifford Olson.

Even though the media love a good body count, however, Crawford's trial got hardly a mention outside of Saskatchewan. Why? Because his victims were native women working the streets - hardly worth worrying about. Crawford knew this, and specifically targeted aboriginal prostitutes because they're far less likely to be undercover cops, and besides, he rationalized, nobody would miss them anyway.

After reading the book, Torrie, who produced the 2003 film Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper story, was determined to make a movie about Crawford and his victims. He will be the writer, director and producer.

"Nobody wanted to back it," he tells me. "It was like it was the story nobody wanted told."

Finally, the Manitoba-based native television network, APTN, agreed to help with the project, and a few other parties followed. Still, Torrie and his partners had to beg and borrow more than $200,000 of their own money and equity to piece together the $1.1 million budget.

In order to get the backing, and to ensure that mainstream audiences would be interested once it was completed, Torrie had to take a different, more Hollywood approach to the story than Crawford's book did.

Capitalizing on the current fascination with the supernatural, there will be a spiritual element in the story, what Torrie describes as "a Sixth Sense feel." The spirits of the murdered women will haunt one of the characters, he says.

He's also enlisted the services of Mike Butters, who played the villain in the low-budget indie shockfest Saw, to play Crawford.

"I'm also hoping to land another U.S. star to play another privotal role, which I hope to announce in the next day or so. I can’t say anything yet, though," Torrie adds coyly. Final edits are supposed to be completed by early November.

Some names have been changed and some characters will be blended together in the interest of storytelling, but Torrie says he will remain true to the message and spirit of Goulding's book.

"I know first-hand the impact of violence on a family," Torrie, an Objibwa, says. "This story is very personal for me. That's why I worked so hard to make sure we could get it done."

APTN will broadcast the movie, which has a working title of Mr. Soul, but Torrie also plans to take it to film festivals in the hope of having it picked up by a major distributor for theatrical release.

The message about the unjust treatment of aboriginal women will remain intact, Torrie says, but the audience won't be bludgeoned with it. Ultimately, he wants to tell a compelling story.

Film, he said, "is a medium that can make a difference. I just pray that the film which nobody wanted to support will become the film that everyone wants to see." P a g e 7 Internship

Internship Opportunity with The National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA) The National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault encourages undergraduate and graduate Students of Color who live in Hartford CT county or New York Capital region [Albany NY and surrounding counties] to apply for our Winter/Spring internship program. Students in the area of Social work, medical, nursing, public health, public policy, health care administration, economics, child development, education and other related undergraduate/ graduate level, such as African, Asian, Latina or Native American studies majors should apply. The program allows a student to spend 3-4 months working on a specific project with SCESA. What is the National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault? The National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA) is a Women of Color led non-profit committed to ensuring that systems-wide policies and social change initiatives related to sexual assault are informed by critical input and direction of Women of Color. Why intern with SCESA? Interning with SCESA gives you the opportunity to work on policy issues and community concerns dealing with sexual assault as it relates to Communities of Color and the interconnections to other social justice movements. Other benefits include the opportunity to learn more about the anti- sexual assault movement and enhancing your leadership skills. What is the priority area for a 2005 intern?

• Policy – address, influence, advocate with national and state government.

• Communications – newsletters, position papers, website, etc.

• Outreach - assist with partnership building with other national organizations

• College - planning and developing programs for our College Leadership Project

• Research - work on research relevant to sexual assault and Communities of Color

• Fundraising - assist with identifying sources of funding to continue SCESA’s work

• Conference planning - assist with all aspects of planning and implementing national training

When is the Starting Date? Internship will begin in January. Deadline dates : Completed application is due by November 28 th 2005

Contact Sopheak at [email protected] for more information I s s u e 2 P a g e 8 How you can get involved?

• Join our Women of Color listserv!!! If you are interested in being added to this listserv send an email to [email protected] with the subject heading subscribe email list .

• Do you work with Immigrant women or Immigrant survivors of sexual assault? We are trying to pull together a database of people who work with immigrant women of sexual assault. If you would like to be included email [email protected] with the subject heading Immigrant women listserv.

• Please note we are currently updating all of our listserv so if you already signed up— stay tuned!

• Are you a student or do you work on campus? SCESA has a college subcommittee. Contact Sopheak Tek at [email protected] if you are interested in finding out more information.

• Do you like to write? Do you have poetry or an article that you would like to share? Send us something to Sister Pages at [email protected]

Upcoming conference...

Alianza’s 5th Annual National Conference

Yo soy el Poder del Cambio: Family Violence Prevention and Beyond

I am the Power of Change: Más allá de la Prevención de Violencia Familiar November 18-19, 2005 Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio, TX

For more information go to www.dvalianza.org or call 1-800-342-9908