in the equinox

heed the sensual. be not numb. speak.

fotojournalismus:

International Roma Day // April 8, 2013

International Roma Day is an opportunity to celebrate Romani culture but also to highlight the persecution and discrimination that Roma people face in all areas of life.

Photos : 

1. A woman holds a sign during a protest against Romani evictions in front of the European Union Parliament to mark International Roma Day in Brussels on April 8, 2013. (REUTERS/Francois Lenoir)

2. A Roma child loads recycled items on his bicycle in Pristina on April 8, 2013. (AFP/Armend Nimani)

3. A Roma woman and her baby are seen though the window of their caravan at a camp in Strasbourg on April 8, 2013. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

4. A teenage girl fixes her hair near hanging laundry in Indre, near Nantes, western France on July 30, 2010. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)

5. Roma children wear masks during activities marking the International Roma Day in Pristina on April 8, 2013. (AFP/Armend Nimani)

6. Ioan Plesa, a Roma man, carries a bundle of twigs he collected to make brooms in Prislop village, 300 km northwest of Bucharest on September 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Radu Sigheti)

(via withlovethelavendermenace)

I am not a loud person. This surprises many people who only know me through my work, and not personally. When those folks observe me not speaking in social spaces, they often ask if I’m all right. I want to tell them I am more than all right, that I am so grateful to be inward-facing for a while. Scholar-activist me has a strong voice and is highly politicized. In private I enjoy stillness and contemplation and listening much more. I am grateful, then, that art and activism have helped me hone and deploy my voice. But I am also wary of the days when it feels like words are being extracted from me without my consent… Not everyone’s education needs to be our responsibility all the time. It is a magnificent and humble act to recognize when talking, or otherwise creating more words, will not do any good. Our words are powerful, especially because they come from the margins, but their power can fade when not used strategically. Our words and energy should also be conserved. Besides, it’s a capitalist logic that tells us to always orient ourselves towards output. Sometimes, there are no more words left in my body and I shouldn’t demand of myself to produce more. When this happens, the greatest kindness my friends can give me is to let me sit and be silent with them. Sometimes, those of us who have grown used to giving of ourselves and our ideas need time to soak in our own beings, and work on our own liberation. Sometimes silence is our only safe space, and we deserve more of it than we offer ourselves.

—the ever-fabulous and soul-warming Janani, from Black Girl Dangerous http://blackgirldangerous.org/new-blog/2012/11/27/brown-silence

Alaska Native women are STILL excluded from VAWA’s tribal provisions

First off, AAAAARRRRGH ugh 

Okay, words.

I’m kicking myself for not reading over the tribal jurisdiction section in the Senate version of VAWA more closely a month ago… (If anyone has a better understanding of this legislation or sees mistakes in what I’ve written, please let me know!)

From what I understand, the tribal provisions in the new VAWA are basically that “a participating tribe may exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction over a defendant for criminal conduct that falls into one or more of the following categories”: (1) Domestic and dating violence “that occurs in the Indian country of the participating tribe”, and (2) Violations of probation orders. But it’s founded upon the assumption that the participating tribe is connected to “Indian country”*. (There’s more details and provisions, but I’ll leave those out for now cuz I’ll get way too distracted). 

Section 910 of the new VAWA, “Special Rule for Alaska”, essentially exempts Alaska from VAWA, and it does so really easily**. Sec 910(a) reads “In the State of Alaska, the amendments made by sections 904 and 905 shall only apply to the Indian country of the Metlakatla Indian Community, Annette Island Reserve.” The reauthorized VAWA—that gives tribal jurisdiction over dating and domestic violence that occurs in Indian country—in Alaska applies only to Metlakatla. All other tribal groups are excluded from the act.

Here’s a recent article on the exclusion of AN women in VAWA and the position of Senator Lisa Murkowski, AK Attorney General Michael Geraghty, and AK Gov. Sean Parnell….ugh

You can get to the full text of the reauthorized VAWA here if you’re so inclined—the section on tribal jurisdiction (901-910) is a pretty quick read.

(*as defined by 1151 of title 18, United States Code: meaning (a) land within the limits of any Indian reservation, (b) “dependent indian communities” that aren’t reservations or allotments [if anyone reading this understands this section, please let me know, I’d love to talk with you!], or (c) Indian allotments to which title hasn’t been extinguished)

(**Even if there weren’t section 910 excluding Alaska Native communities from VAWA, most Alaska Natives may still be excluded from VAWA because of the way “Indian country” functions in Alaska. In AK, most Alaska Natives own their land through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act [ANCSA] of 1971—they hold tribal lands through Alaska Native owned corporations instead of through reservations or allotments. ANCSA completely extinguished all aboriginal land claims, except for those few villages that opted out of VAWA [Savoonga, Gambell, and I believe Metlakatla], and instead granted Native Alaskans shares of corporate stock in Alaska Native Corporations, through which they own land. All land owned through ANCSA is no longer Indian country, and thus may not be covered by the provisions of VAWA.)

(Also, here is the organization, Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission [ARJLEC], that currently responds to cases of domestic violence in rural AK. In section 909 of VAWA 2013 it states that within a year of the passage of VAWA, the AK Attorney General will report to congress with respect to whether or not the ARJLEC will be continued, how it will be continued, and recommendations for legislation “with respect to the scope of work and composition of the commission”)

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a foreign language. Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live with them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

—

Rainer Maria Riike, Letters To A Young Poet (via mmqd)

(Lovely and true advice unless, of course, you simply need to lunge at the question and hold it down until it quits trying to writhe out from under you. It’s less kind but then again sometimes so are we.)

love the questions

(via weareboatsremember)

(via scarletandgrey)

Femme is, in part, about femme friendships. Femmes are people who see another feminine person and purposefully ignore the culturally prescribed girl hate and learn to say, ”God, you are beautiful and I want to be your friend,” rather than, “She’s so much prettier than me, I hate her.” My femme friendships are a mutual celebration of our brilliance, beauty, strength, power, heart and soul. Ultimately feminist, we heal through loving each other in a world that teaches us to mistrust each other.

—

Melissa Heckman, Body Image: I’m a Femme
 (via adayinthelesbianlife)

There are a lot of people in the world that I love!

(via weareboatsremember)

(via cuntlazer)

Miss Idaho Potato 1935 (Idaho, I think we’re gonna be friends some day.)

Miss Idaho Potato 1935

(Idaho, I think we’re gonna be friends some day.)

newwavefeminism:

thepeoplesrecord:

Indian feminists/activists respond to Harvard kids attempting to help the less fortunate ‘third world’ feminists
February 25, 2013

Globally, from the U.S. to the developing world, rape and other forms of violence against women remain at shockingly high levels. Focusing on the horrifying case of a 23-year-old Indian student who was gang-raped and beaten to death in Delhi in December, the Harvard College Women’s Center announced it would create a Beyond Gender Equality task force, “convened to offer recommendations to India and other South Asian countries in the wake of the New Delhi gang rape and murder.”

The group ignored the long history of Indian activists themselves fighting to end rape and sexual violence—including recent mass protests of South Asian women and men calling for a systemic fight against rape. And the Harvardites had nothing to say about the ample evidence of the problem of rape in the U.S.—from the sickening gang rape and subsequent cover-up at Steubenville High School in Ohio, to the systematic downplaying of rape and sexual assault at Amherst College and other universities.

In response to this “white (wo)man’s burden” take on the issue of sexual violence in South Asia, a group Indian feminists wrote the following response, first published at Kafila.org, detailing their own years of work fighting to end rape and gain justice sexual assault victims.

— — — — — — —

Dear sisters (and brothers?) at Harvard,
WE’RE A group of Indian feminists and we are delighted to learn that the Harvard community—without doubt one of the most learned in the world—has seen fit to set up a policy task force entitled “Beyond Gender Equality” and that you are preparing to offer recommendations to India (and other South Asian countries) in the wake of the New Delhi gang rape and murder.

Not since the days of Katherine Mayo have American women—and American feminists—felt such a concern for their less privileged Third World sisters. Mayo’s concern, at that time, was to ensure that the Indian state (then the colonial state) did not leave Indian women in the lurch, at the mercy of their men, and that it retained power and the rule of the just.

Yours, we see, is to work towards ensuring that steps are put in place that can help the Indian state in its implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee, a responsibility the Indian state must take up.

This is clearly something that we, Indian feminists and activists who have been involved in the women’s movement here for several decades, are incapable of doing, and it was with a sense of overwhelming relief that we read of your intention to step into this breach.

You might be pleased to know that one of us, a lawyer who led the initiative to put pressure on the Justice Verma Committee to have a public hearing with women’s groups, even said in relief, when she heard of your plans, that she would now go on holiday and take a plane ride to see the Everest.

Indeed, we are all relieved, for now we know that our efforts will not have been in vain: the oral evidence provided by 82 activists and organizations to the Justice Verma Committee—and which we believe substantially contributed to the framing of their report—will now be in safe American hands!

Perhaps you are aware that the Indian state has put in place an “Ordinance on Sexual Assault” that ignores many recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee? If not, we would be pleased to furnish you a copy of the Ordinance, as well as a chart prepared by us, which details which recommendations have been accepted and which not.

This may be useful in your efforts to advise our government. One of the greatest things about sisterhood is that it is so global—feminism has built such strong international connections, such that whenever our First World sisters see that we are incapable of dealing with problems in our countries, they immediately step in to help us out and provide us with much needed guidance and support. We are truly grateful for this.

Perhaps you will allow us to repay the favor, and next time President Obama wants to put in place legislation to do with abortion or the Equal Rights Amendment, we can step in and help, and, from our small bit of experience in these fields, recommend what the United States can do.

Source (with signatures)

I love the awesomeness of the response and the wake up call to academic feminists that are too high up the ivory tower to understand the areas in which they are trying to “save”.

But when it’s 2013 this shit shouldn’t be JUST happening.

<3