Waking Women doing its part to deal with MMIW

Institute looking out for women, children, two-spirits, along with families and sexual assault survivors
By: 
Lynn Zaffrann
Correspondent

The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a community-wide problem, not just focused on the reservations in the Shawano area.

“More than 70% of Indigenous people live in cities rather than on reservations,” said Kristin Welch, executive director of Waking Women Health Institute in Gresham.

Welch has been involved in working with Indigenous survivors of sexual violence for more than eight years. A survivor herself, she founded the institute one year ago. The institute serves missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirits (LGBTQ-identified persons), along with families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and survivors of sexual violence.

The institute partners locally with Shawano-area programs to increase awareness of the Indigenous identity and cultural tools for healing.

“It’s all over Shawano County. Women have gone missing here, which makes it everyone’s issue to get involved in,” Welch said. “For example, we reached out to SAM25 in Shawano because there is a huge Indigenous population at that homeless shelter. We were able to provide training on MMIW for them. We work with non-Indigenous agencies to provide training, for example what to do if someone goes missing, or how to best work with Indigenous survivors. We do a lot of public action events to create education and awareness throughout the Great Lakes regions.”

In June, the institute partnered on the Billboard Event in Appleton to raise awareness of MMIW with Empowerment Solidarity Truth Hope Equity Reform, an interfaith social-justice organization in the Fox Valley.

“With that, we held a press conference and a gathering, and engaged local leaders in that community to do something (about MMIW), as well,” Welch said.

The billboard campaign seeks to raise awareness of the high numbers of MMIW and the lack of attention to missing women of color.

Before she founded Waking Women, Welch worked in prevention, healing and wraparound work with women and children, hearing their stories of surviving violence and realized their stories were her stories. She founded the institute to be a survivor-led organization to create a place of learning and healing through kinships with Indigenous women, using their culture and traditional ways.

The term “Waking Women” comes from Welch’s own experience. She explained that she came from a place of trauma and domestic violence, then arrived at a place of healing, and when she found her voice, it was like waking up.

“Watching other women on that same path and seeing them wake up,” Welch said. “Using your own story for change can be really powerful to help other survivors” she added.

Referrals to the institute come from partner agencies, and many survivors involved with the institute refer others through word of mouth. Online forums on social networking sites, such as Twitter, also advertise the services provided by the institute. The institute website, www.wakingwomenhealinging.org, was created by Welch to provide information about its services and goals.

Welch said a big piece in founding the institute was to ensure that it would be culturally connected to Indigenous traditions, to help survivors heal and cope in the Indigenous ways.

“All of our programs are founded on our culture, on our teachings and try to connect with the land again and have a healthy relationship with her, and that is guided by our grandmothers,” Welch said.

The institute has a Grandmothers Council, following traditional structures.

“We’ve got experienced grandmothers that we look to in making sure that we’re not creating something that will re-traumatize the survivors or their families,” Welch said. “They help us facilitate a lot of the work.”

Survivors are able to work with experienced staff and volunteers of the institute virtually in Talking Circle sessions on Zoom. Other online forums include family members discussing their experiences, education on how to prevent MMIW and discussions about issues that have led up to the MMIW epidemic. An ongoing survivor group offered by the institute is “We Are Brave” for women of all ages who identify as survivors and for MMIW family members.

The healing and prevention team with the institute helps families seek justice for their lost or murdered relatives. Another team is the care and response team consisting of community organizers, legal experts, traditional Indigenous knowledge holders, trauma workers and survivors. The team provides free help to navigate the justice system, financial assistance and fundraising help.

The institute has major goals for the next year.

“One is to get a physical space with land for our program,” Welch said. “We are looking for something central, like Gresham, because we serve Menominee and Oneida. We’re hoping to find something private, by the water. That would be the dream. It would be multi-purpose, with office space and housing available.”

Welch also serves as a member of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force. The task force is creating methods to trace the abduction, homicide, violence and trafficking of Indigenous women in Wisconsin, with goals of uncovering the causes of MMIW.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology awarded Welch and the institute a 2021 Indigenous Communities Fellowship for focusing healing and justice for Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit. They will partner with MIT through May 2022 to combine technology and culture to prevent MMIW.

The mother of three girls and one son, Welch said: “I work for them so that our younger girls don’t have to go through what we went through, that they don’t have to experience violent relationships and the injustices that happen with that. I think that’s the ultimate goal, to have them grow up in a space where they don’t know about MMIW. So that they don’t know someone who was missing or murdered, so that they don’t have to experience that violence themselves.”