#16DaysOfActivism: Resources for unlearning and relearning
Image: Laxana Paskaran
#16DaysOfActivism is an international campaign to raise awareness and build organizing power around issues of gender-based violence. The campaign runs from November 25th, The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10th, Human Rights Day.
We cannot talk about sexual violence without making connections to colonial violence. Developing meaningful strategies to disrupt colonial mentality and infrastructures, particularly around patriarchal violence in our communities, requires an ongoing commitment to unlearning and relearning. It is critical to connect anti-violence work to anti-colonial work and actively implement an intersectional framework as we continue to engage in conversations around consent culture.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of books, audio/visuals, resource hubs and organizations to support during and beyond #16DaysOfActivism. The recommendations listed below deal with important issues including feminist organizing, sex- education, consent education, pleasure and transformative justice.
Books to read:
1. Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement.
Long-time Transformative Justice (TJ) practitioners, abolitionists and community organizers Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha wrote the book Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement to document existing practices of accountability to address violence without the involvement of the police and other state-led interventions. The book privileges the narratives of different anti-violence organizers and charts the things that worked and didn’t work while working within a TJ framework for addressing violence within racialized and marginalized communities. In the book, Dixon writes, “I find ways to support [folks] that are in line with my politics because I know that just as punishment does not transform behavior, neither does judgment.” This collection of reflections from grassroots organizers offers alternatives to the criminal justice systems and provides important context to conversations around working towards an abolitionists future.
More reading on community accountability and transformative justice: The Revolution Starts at Home, Fumbling Towards Repair (work book), and anything written by Mariame Kaba.
2. Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age by Nora Loreto
In Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age, Nora charts the history of Feminist organizing in Canada and makes important reflections regarding the organizing power of feminist movements (ie. #MeToo, Slutwalk) and the co-optation and subsequent watering down of feminism by government representatives (shout out to Trudeau) and corporations. Nora notes the lack of intersectionality among feminist movements as reason for its inevitable downfall. She points us towards decolonial anti-racist movements, such as BLM, for their inclusion of a critical feminist lens in their work. This book is an important read for anyone interested in a thorough history of feminist organizing in Canada and wants tangible solutions and strategies to implement moving forward. For more, please see a brilliant review of the book in Briarpatch Magazine here.
Audio/Visual to check out:
3. Talking your way to better sex by Karen B.K. Chan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFvJCY9xErU
Explaining consent culture, sex and pleasure in a world where it’s normal to shame and stigmatize these conversations can be extremely tough. However, Karen B.K. Chan, making it seem so easy, has always been among the very few best at facilitating these necessary conversations. Karen B.K. Chan is “an award-winning sex and emotional literacy educator in Toronto, Canada, with 20+ years of experience. Karen (aka BK) is dedicated to having difficult conversations that are real, transformative, and kind.” They teach and speak to folks about sex, feelings and everything in between. You can see more of their work, writing, and information on booking here.
4. Podcasts: Dash the Curry and Hello Kekutho
I couldn’t choose just one, so here are two of my favourite podcasts by Eelam Tamils: The first is Dash the Curry, hosted by Mathusha Senthil (who you may also know as the founder of Thaen Pot), is an interview-style podcast that explores issues often pushed under the rug within the Tamil community. Some notable episodes include: “Sexual Liberation with Frida Banks,” “Queer and Tamil” part 1 and 2, and “Female Freedom Fighters.” The second is Hello Kekutho, a conversation-style podcast by two diaspora Tamils from Germany. Hosts Ram and Kasthury speak in the most eloquent Tamil to address issues that continue to hold stigma in the Tamil community. Notable episodes include: “Talking Toxic Masculinity in Tamil”, “What war does to us,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
5. Sex Education
TV shows and movies rarely succeed in attempting conversations around consent. However, Netflix’s Sex Education is one of the only shows that gently approached hard conversations around sexual violence, while emphasizing the power of friendship and meaningful support for survivors. Rotten Tomatoes has given the series a rating of 94%. Although, I would argue that the second season is slightly better than the first.
Organizations to support:
6. Abuse Never Becomes Us (ANBU)
ANBU seeks to “provide healing and empowerment through holistic support, resources and advocacy for Tamil people impacted by childhood sexual abuse (CSA)”. ANBU continues to provide and work within an intersectional lens to cultivate informative conversations around CSA, as well as consent education. Please consider donating directly to ANBU, to support their upcoming initiatives and events. Get involved and/or learn more about ANBU’s work through their website and Instagram. For folks across the pond, ANBU also has a UK chapter.
7. Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project
Maggie’s is one of Canada’s oldest sex workers organizations, run by and for sex workers. In response to the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on sex workers, particularly Black sex workers, Maggie’s has set up several campaigns to support sex workers during this time. To support, consider donating to Maggie’s COVID-19 Black Sex Worker Emergency Support Fund. Maggie’s also accepts ongoing donations of any amount. Additionally, please support calls for justice around the death of Coco, a Black Trans women, who died in Toronto Police Custody on October 27th this year. Lastly, support and share upcoming and ongoing programming and events by the organization.
Recommended reading to learn about the history of sex work activism in Canada, check out the book Sex Work Activism in Canada: Speaking Out, Standing Up.
8. ISEEINITIATIVE
ISEEINITIATIVE is an anti-violence organization dedicated to eradicating domestic violence (DV) and provides support for survivors of DV through advocacy and educational initiatives. Often at the forefront of meaningful discussions around DV in the Tamil community, ISEEINITIATIVE, is a necessary space for safe conversations around social and cultural norms that continue to be barriers for racialized people in accessing supports. In response to the growing need for support due to the pandemic’s impact on DV, ISEEINITIATIVE has set up a Go Fund Me Page for emergency funds for survivors to access. You can access information around getting involved and learning more about ISEEINITIATIVE here.
Resource Hubs:
9. Tamil Reads
If you are thinking of starting a book club/reading group to keep you busy during the long winter months ahead, look no further. Tamil Reads is carving out an essential space for education and shining light on stories and histories often overlooked by the status quo. With a growing collection of books and recommended reading lists, Tamil Reads fosters a community of critical thinkers and challenging mainstream narratives around Eelam Tamil identity and various intersecting identities, including but not limited to gender, sexuality, class and caste. To learn more and/or access their resource lists, check out their Instagram and Twitter.
10. The Barnard Centre for Research on Women
The Barnard Centre for Research on Women is a resource hub that “brings scholars and activists together through its working groups, public events, publications, and multimedia projects to advance intersectional social justice feminist analyses and to promote social transformation.”
Complete with educational videos, podcasts, newsletters, and a wide range of online events, the centre focuses on transformative strategies and centres the narratives of anti-violence community organizers in all of their work. Some personal favourites are the centre’s videos that tackle important conversations around consent, anti-sexual violence work, and community accountability, especially: “What gets in the way of accountability,” and “How shame can block accountability.”
This work can be tough and taking care of yourself is important to avoid burnout. A gentle reminder to be patient with yourself as you engage in a lifelong process of unlearning and relearning.
