Intimate Partner Violence

"This workbook is geared towards families of missing Native relatives. Family searches are the most invested in finding a lost loved one. They are also a powerful expression of sovereignty. Sometimes, police and other agencies need to be held accountable for inaction or apathy. With families empowered with information, the search for the missing relative cannot be derailed by apathy or inaction, in fact quite the opposite, as visibility and accountability won’t permit it. This workbook was not created in partnership with any funder or funding source.

Resources

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention Fact Sheet on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native people. CDC uses datasets from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), to inform MMIP efforts.

This sample proclamation aims to assist Tribal leaders and advocates in their efforts to proclaim October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month across Tribal Nations, Alaska Native villages, and Indian and Native Hawaiian communities. We encourage you to download and customize this template as needed.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)/Battering is the purposeful use of a system of multiple, continuous tactics to maintain power and control over another. As described in the Intimate Partner Violence Triangle, this intentional violence results from and is supported by unnatural, misogynistic, sexist societal and cultural belief systems. This tool describes the types of physical and psychological abuse that may be used to maintain power and control over a current or former intimate partner or spouse.

The work to end violence against Native women and recreate peaceful, harmonious communities is based on reclaiming our traditional values, belief systems and life ways. As shown in the Nonviolence Equality Wheel, the key values of this life way are: compassion, respect, generosity, mutual sharing, humility, contributing/industriousness, courage, love and being spiritually centered. At the center of this tool is equality. Equality is recognizing that everyone has the right to follow their path. Equality means power-sharing, not holding power over.

Advocacy for survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) requires an understanding of the dynamics and tactics of IPV. This understanding is also necessary for advocacy for social change to end domestic violence. This webinar will provide an overview of the root causes of domestic violence in Indigenous communities. It will also explain the dynamics and tactics of IPV from a survivor’s perspective.

Download Report 

The hardships imposed by COVID-19 are numerous, impacting advocates as individuals and their ability to provide advocacy, resources and shelter to domestic violence survivors. Stay-At-Home orders, social distancing and the other necessary steps intended to offer protection from COVID-19, often escalate the danger to victims of domestic violence and create barriers to safety.

Statistics, and information on domestic violence, and human trafficking in Native Hawaiian communities by the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence