The Aboriginal Women's Action Network was in attendance at the One is Too Many Summit held in Vancouver.

Typically we do not ask our women to tell their stories because we do not wish to exploit their stories and their lives. However, there are women amongst us, and in our communities, who want to tell their stories, and this is one woman who insisted on telling her story about her life and sharing her thoughts, feelings and opinions about her experience. We give her thanks and honour her courage to offer her life story, because as she says, "it's too important to not tell, and people need to understand."


"Hello, I am of Kwakwakeuk and Coast Salish ancestory. I want to acknowlege the Coast Salish people for allowing us to be on their unceded territories. I come from a long line of people who were oppressed by the governments and the churches. Both, parents and grandparents, were products of Indian Residential Schools. Myself, I was an extension of the government's plan to break down our people. I was apprehended in what is now known as the 60's scoop, and I was placed in abusive and violent foster homes.


Here in our homelands, we've seen violence and sexual violence learned from these systemic forces, (fucked) incested and molested by our fathers, uncles and foster parents .. this sexualized violence was the training ground for what was to come later in our lives. At fourteen I started to run from these foster homes. I came to Vancouver at 15 years old, where I found my Mom in a small rundown hotel called the Sunrise Hotel. She was broken down and beaten by the residential school, which was the breeding ground for what was to come later in her life; violent men and prostitution.. My mother cried 'til the day she died. At fifteen I found a family down in Vancouver's skid row with people like myself, a family that I created - or was created for me.

I felt like a burden to my mom who was living on a small welfare cheque. I knew my Mom was frustrated with the financial burden, I didnt have many choices.

So when I met the man who was to become my pimp and boyfriend, I was willing to do anything I had to do to survive. I was groomed, trained & encouraged to prostitute myself with his 'nice' words of "Everyone is doing it," and that he promised he would "love me no less." I remember being prostituted as a very young woman, still a child.. crying myself to sleep.. full of shame and remorse. I started using drugs and alcohol to push these thoughts and feelings down. At that time in my life, I thought this was my destiny, and I would find no better. My pimp at the time confirmed these thoughts when he said, "no one would want you anymore." So I made the best of a difficult situation. The difficult situation being my life had been a nightmare, and the nightmare continued here in the city.


During my time on the street I was abused so many times, I couldn't count if I tried, with knives and guns.. physically and sexually. Many times I found my self with black eyes and no where to turn. I was assisted by organizations who gave me condoms, bad trick sheets and false hope. I even volunteered my story and campaigned with organizations like the Alliance for the Safety of Prostitutes... I wore shirts that said "a blow-job is better than no job." They gave me condoms to protect me from disease and pregnancy - but they did not offer me hope. Nor was I offered any real exiting strategies - this also confirmed that this was my so-called destiny.

Housing, training and jobs weren't available.


I remember hearing about women that were going missing or were found dead when they were "working" the street. "Working," I don't even like to say that word in the same sentence, it wasn't a job. There were no benefits. I didnt get high risk or danger pay - but then again it wasn't a job - men were paying to violate me. If it wasn't for my rule that I wouldn't leave the city with a trick I would be dead too. I was approached my men who wanted to take me out of the city boundaries.


My friends never had the chance to tell their story because they were found dead in places like the Pickton farm. I cry for them, I even helped carve a memorial pole for those ones that disappeared or were found dead. Our sisters are still going missing all the time.

In this last year I 've learned two of our youth have committed suicide rather than continue to be paid to be raped. They jumped off balconies to escape from the violence of prosititution. These youth lived in places like Beach Avenue and they worked in high end so called safe escort services. It's sad when suicide seems the only option, but it happens all of the time.

What we know is; Aboriginal women and children are being harmed as we speak. Women and youth are turning to alcohol and drugs to cope.


When my Mom passed away at thirty eight, I was twenty two

"...we are taking collective action..."

As Aboriginal Women on unceded Coast Salish Territories, we are taking collective action in time to avert the worst possible situation for women and children and most rewarding climate for johns, pimps and traffickers of sexually exploited and prostituted women, by opposing the total decriminalization of prostitution and a proposed brothel with amnesty.

Pro-brothel and pro-decriminalization lobbyists have an agenda--and we fear it is a pimp agenda.
We have heard that there is a common goal in our work, that "we all want what is best and safest for those who are exploited." If this were indeed true, then there would be many more people who are invested in calling for the end of poverty, homelessness, racism, child sexual assault, pornography and prostitution. If we truly were allied in the same fight, then we would have many more on our side demanding an end to the punitive criminalization of women and children. The focus would immediately shift to the unsafe, degrading or even brutal behaviour of men who violate the bodies and spirits of the most marginalized, without any real type of punishment or accountability for their actions-which seems to create a legal exploitation. The attitudes, beliefs and criminal actions of sexual predators, and make no mistake, johns are sexual predators, must be corrected, by a revised law which reflects a society which views prostitution as violence against women and children.

Some pro-brothel lobbyists claim they have consulted with Aboriginal women. This goes to the heart of the issue of Aboriginal world views in contrast to the dominant society. The western world, our historical colonizers who were responsible for institutionalizing prostitution, tends to focus on the individual, whereas most Aboriginal world views are collective by their very nature. So the pro-brothel and pro-decriminalization lobbyists may have spoken to a handful of individuals (this lack of consultation is a tactic to advance their political agenda ); but have they spoken with the families and their communities where these prostituted women come from? When we think of the 'missing' and murdered Aboriginal women, whether it's the annual Memorial March, or the events surrounding the 'Highway of Tears', Aboriginal women often underscore the fact that these missing and murdered women come from families and communities that loved them. By extension, when AWAN women see our sisters on the streets, their homes and so-called legitimate escort agencies (brothels), being violated, abused, maimed and killed, we assert our right to speak on the side of prostituted Aboriginal women.

So if pro-brothel and pro-decriminalization lobbyists can claim to legitimately represent prostituted Aboriginal women, then they must recognize and respect our world views, especially the "collective" or "communal" aspect of our connectedness. AWAN women are friends and family of women who are missing from the downtown eastside of Vancouver, the Highway of Tears and other parts of Canada. AWAN women work closely with the organizers, Gladys Radek and Bernie Williams, of the the walk4justice2008. On June 21st, 2008, National Aboriginal Day, people began walking across Canada to Ottawa, and they walked for all the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, and their grieving families. We urged all to visit the website, there were many different ways to be involved or support the walk. http://walk4justice.piczo.com/?cr=6

We, at AWAN, have a very strong analysis of what colonization has done to our women, and how this connects to present-day prostitution. Historically, during Canada's first 100 years, European women were not allowed to emigrate. The European male, operating under the biological of imperative of "having his way" sexually, stole and trafficked First Nations into brothels surrounding military forts and trading companies.

Sound familiar?

This historical trafficking of First Nations women is no different from brothels surrounding military posts globally today where overwhelming numbers of indigenous women are trafficked. Powerful, interlocking forces, such as the church, military, market, and the state created First Nations women's subjugation. This devaluation has continued to present-day, and because of its longevity, it has been normalized and accepted. We, at AWAN, understand that trafficking is forced migration, that women on reserves are forced off reserves because of poor living conditions and violence. These conditions render First Nations women extremely vulnerable to being coerced into prostitution. AWAN knows that these conditions in Canada are also the same conditions for indigenous women globally. Trafficking is globalized prostitution. Women leave reserves because of extreme poverty and violence, both sexual and physical. Whether a woman is trafficked from reserve to city inside her own country,

Part Three:
t do instead of decriminalizing prostitution or supporting an experimental brothel to help Native women in the sex trade industry?"
AWAN responded: First, we use language that doesn't obscure the danger and harms of prostitution. We do not use the term "sex trade" because it implies choice and a legitimate form of labour. Instead, we use the term "prostituted" woman to show that something is being done to her--it exposes, essentially the "non-choice" for women and reveals the harm that is intrinsic to prostitution. Prostituted First Nations women in Canada have echoed the needs of prostituted Indigenous women globally. Overwhelmingly, women want out. Federally, we need legislation to stop the sexual demand by men for women's and children's rented and bought bodies. Canada would do well to follow Sweden's example. In 1999, Sweden enacted legislation which recognizes that prostitution is violence which is directed toward women and children, by men. Sweden views prostitution as entrenching women's inequality. This progressive legislation is a re-dress to this inequality. Johns, pimps and "sexual entrepreneurs" are criminalized and punished--the prostituted women are not. Instead, they are helped to exit prostitution, offered counselling services, pre-employment training, medical attention, and safe places to live. With such a strong stance federally, Canada's provinces and municipalities would, as the then Mayor Sam Sullivan had said, "have to honour the federal legislative framework" and fall in line with its resulting policies and programs to assist Aboriginal women exit out of prostitution, and to being on the journey of healing from the multiple harms it has caused our women.
If we are to help the most vulnerable street prostituted women, of which a significant number are young aboriginal women struggling with problems with addictions, homelessness, and chronic, often life-threatening health problems, what we need are:
1) more detox beds;
2) recovery centres designed to: a) give women "cultural tools" to recover; b) educate women concerning the origins of violence in their lives; and
c) consciousness-raise so women can fight to end prostitution--the "oldest oppression" in the world;
3) comprehensive and compassionate medical services;
4) guaranteed liveable income;
5) job training; and
6) adequate housing for women and their families.