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When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali
CLICK HERE ON HOW TO READ
ALL PARTS OF THIS SPECIAL
<The stench of death>
<Canada's murdered women and girls.>
Between 8 Nov 2021 and 17 Feb 2022 AL Jazeera published a serial of
articles about femicides of Canadian Indigenous women and girls of which each word is so
heartbreaking that it takes a lot of courage to read the whole serial. Still I challenge you to do so! I divided it according to the
number of articles and quoted from them ending with a read more URL.
All
articles were written by the Canadian-French
and better said Cree/Iroquois journalist Brandi
Morin (1 to 10) except the last one
(11th.) written by an Al Jazeera team. Click below the link that'll take
you to all the articles including related ones:
[Copyright: Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]
Updated 26 Apr 2022
'The stench of death'
All related links
Al Jazeera
31 Dec 2021
OPINION
Indigenous Rights
<<Telling Indigenous stories: 'I’m fighting to be heard'
I've been seeking out and sharing the stories of oppression, trauma and
brutality that my people continue to endure.
Special about Brandi Morin
Brandi Morin is a French/Cree/Iroquois journalist from
Treaty 6 in Alberta, Canada. She is passionate about showcasing stories
of injustice, human rights, environment, culture, tradition and
resilience from an indigenous viewpoint.
<I shoot up from the bed in my hotel room, my heart pounding so hard I
can hear it echoing outside of my body. It takes me a few seconds to
realise I’m not dying, that it’s the recurrent nightmare I have been
having for two and a half years, the details of which I don’t always
remember. I rush to the toilet and splash water on my face, take a few
slow, deep breaths to calm down. This is the norm for me when I’m out
reporting on stories of Indigenous Peoples. It's gotten to the point
where I must carry a bottle of prescription sleeping pills to help in
case I’m so wound up by adrenaline and stress that I cannot fall asleep.
Sometimes, I don't sleep for days when on assignment, distressed by
police intimidation, fearing that the person who sent me a death threat
might follow through with it.
Each time I go out, it feels like I’m headed into a war zone. A war of
oppression, trauma and brutality against those whose stories I’ve been
fighting to bring to the world’s attention; in the hope that the world
will care and stand with them to demand equality and justice for them.
And yet I'm often fighting to be heard in the very industry I work in.
There was a time when the voices of Indigenous Peoples were completely
silenced. The media played a huge role in that, both in Canada and
across the world. Several years ago, I decided to tell these stories
after I realised that much of Canadian society had become apathetic to
the plight of Indigenous nations. When I became a storyteller over a
decade ago, I was hungry to seek out and share the stories of my
Indigenous people. It was only a couple of years into my journalism
career that I began focusing solely on Indigenous stories after
realising that they are often told in a discriminatory and biased way by
the mainstream media. I'm what some call mixed blood, French Canadian
from my father’s side and Cree/Iroquois through my mother’s family.
While reporting, every native elder’s face I looked at, reminded me of
my kohkum (grandmother), who passed away in 2008. She was a survivor; of
colonisation, residential school abuse and struggled with alcoholism,
but she was a warrior; proud of her native roots and loved her family
from the depths of her being in her 74 years on this earth. Seeing
displaced families, the trauma they have had to endure and the
addictions they have been dealing with, brought back memories of my own
family’s struggles. Each of us, through several generations, has been
impacted by colonial violence, residential school horrors and the
devastation that ensued.
A troubled relationship
Meanwhile, the media was helping to perpetuate this violence by failing
to report on the rampant injustices. And when on the rare occasion the
media did report on our communities, they mostly got it wrong. All of it
– our people, our culture, our history, our ongoing struggles. I was
insulted and heartbroken. So, this work became my life's mission. But it
required determination because going where few have gone before isn’t
easy. You have to get your hands dirty, do difficult work on the ground.
It is hard to gain the trust of people who are often still hurting from
trauma, and to build relationships, to do justice to their stories. And
learning the culture, protocols and traditions of each sovereign nation
is just the first, but a significant step, in this process. All this
extra effort must be put in without any expectation or guarantee of
payment for it. These stories often have strong ties to people’s lives,
and require a deep dive to explore and expose the multiple layers of
systemic abuse and brutality. The mainstream media’s template of
storytelling does not even begin to do them justice as it only allows
journalists, who are often parachuted in, to barely scratch the surface.
To further complicate this, the relationship between Indigenous Peoples
and those in the media and the government – mostly non-Indigenous – is
troubled. Our stories are interpreted and presented from the white
colonial mindset, which dominates mainstream media. A system, which I
believe, must be challenged and dismantled. Indigenous journalists are
now taking steps to decolonise the media, telling the truths that have
never been told. In doing so, they are challenging historical untruths.
For too long, there have been colonial power imbalances within the
media, enabling the colonial narrative to be put forward.
We, as journalists, have the power to amplify the voices of the
marginalised, to effect social and political transformation, and to
better the lives of those who bear the brunt of widespread abuse.> >>
Note from Gino d'Artali: Please do read more here, Miss Brandi Morin
deserves it because she works very hard to decolonise the media!
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/12/31/telling-indigenous-stories-im-fighting-to-be-heard
Update July 25 2022: click here for her newly published book
<Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a
Warrior Rising>
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