too many voices in our society one in
three women worldwide will experience
physical or sexual violence in their
lifetime one in three could be your
mother your sister your friend your wife
your daughter you one in three and four
women who work in male-dominated fields
like in Hollywood that number is higher
and for women of color and indigenous
violence against women comes in many
forms
child molestation sexual abuse sexual
assault domestic violence workplace
harassment cyberbullying date rape
stalking human trafficking even murder
and this list keeps growing but the
targets are the same mostly women and
those who identify as women and children
who can’t defend themselves women who
can’t speak up and speak out against the
men who caused them harm women’s voices
are stifled and even though it may not
seem like it in some of your homes the
feminine voice is still missing in the
song of humanity and humanity is robbed
of its valuable contribution to family
as an indigenous woman from the may
nation of Canada I was taught that women
are sacred that we are the life givers
and not that men are not sacred you are
but the elders say that this this is the
time of the sacred
feminine and that means that men women
two-spirited all of us have worked to do
in learning how to honor the feminine
voice and learning how to honor what is
[Applause]
as a little girl I knew I was sacred
they called me the little songbird and I
may have been terrible at telling jokes
and terrible at ballet but I could sing
I was singing before I could talk and
this little number was my first big hit
twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder
what you do you remember singing that
when you were a child yeah
or hearing your son or daughter sing it
children’s voices are so open and clear
and sacred when I was 13 years old my
little songbird suddenly stopped singing
I’m in a little town in northern
Saskatchewan and I’m at my first party
my friend Jackie and I are so excited
because we are sharing our first
cocktail of alcohol you know the kind
that only a 13 year old can make rum rye
tequila peach snaps Grand Marnier what
well we are giddy because not because of
the booze but because all of the cute
older boys are here including the cute
blonde feather haired boy that I have a
crush on and when he walks up to me
Jackie nudges me I think I’m gonna pass
out but we talked and talked and after a
while he takes my hand and asks me to go
to his car he has a car I say yes
because I’m gonna get my first kiss well
I’m in the passenger seat of his
chocolate brown station wagon
but my little heart is beating so fast
and when he reaches his arm around me
I’m thinking this is it but instead he
reaches behind me and unlocks the back
door and two of his friends jump into
the car the next thing I know I’m hauled
into the backseat and someone’s holding
my head down and I can’t breathe and
someone’s tearing down my jeans and my
panties and sticking their fingers ow
and I want to cry out and scream no but
I can’t I can’t I just lie there and let
them do things to me I don’t want them
suddenly I hear Jackie calling my name
Andrea and those older boys hear her too
and they stop and they quickly shoved me
out of the car and drive off I’m so
humiliated I pull up my jeans and walk
back to the party I can’t say a word not
to Jackie not to my parents because
somehow this is my fault I should have
known better but I swallow my shame and
I lock my voice up tight the next
morning I wake up to a world that is
dangerous I look at men differently is
this what all boys and men are like am I
the only one am I the only one no for
the first time I really look and pay
attention to the girls and the women in
my community suddenly their stories and
their suffering become very real to me
no I am not the only one my own auntie
my gentle sweet auntie was attacked by a
stranger walking home from work one
night
now I remember she was beat up she was
so black and blue you couldn’t see the
color of her own skin
but was she sexually violated – I didn’t
ask and she never said that’s how women
lose their voice why don’t we say
anything or anyone else say anything and
why aren’t the boys and the men taking
responsibility even today
women’s voices are missing but the
voices of boys and men are missing –
they’re missing in the conversation
about violence against women by men so
because there was this great silence
that descended over everything my 13
year old self thought that women’s
voices especially indigenous women’s
voices didn’t matter when bad things
happen to you you don’t turn against
your perpetrator you turn against
yourself you swallow your shame and you
lock your voice up tight so that’s how
my little songbird went silent for 15
years I swallowed my shame and stifled
my voice until this burning lump in my
throat started to choke me Oh my wounds
had healed years ago but this burning
lump in my throat just wasn’t going away
so finally at the age of 28 I go to see
my elder Sylvia now Sylvia was a cree
elder a pipe carrier and a native rights
activist who knows how to use her voice
in the cree tradition if you seek an
elders guidance you offer tobacco in the
spirit of respect and reciprocity
well I offer Sylvia tobacco and she can
tell I’m nervous
so she says why don’t we walk down by
the river my girl you can
tell me your story while we walk now I’m
uncomfortable and I barely get to the
part where I’m both the burning lump in
my throat when she says I want you to
come sing at the feast tomorrow my girl
come sing for your people what the
grandmothers gave you that voice for a
reason yeah but my throat it’s because
you’re not using it my girl that
beautiful voice was meant to be used to
heal your people you must use your voice
just like that bird I didn’t hear any
bird and I sure as heck wasn’t singing
at the feast tomorrow I tell her so you
and with that she speeds off down the
river without me a dog I give her
tobacco and she tells me to get a dog
well guess what I got a dog yeah my
little black kakapo shady came into my
life and she was shady she was always
getting into trouble getting skunked
stealing treats out of my purse but she
loved the outdoors and she got me
outdoors out of my house and out into
the beautiful fields and Forests along
the South Saskatchewan River it was the
first time in my adult life that I heard
the birds chirping and heard the healing
sounds of Mother Nature so maybe Sylvia
was onto something because amongst all
these natural cries and calls I realized
just how locked up my voice really was
so one beautiful spring morning shady
and I are walking and she’s playing tag
with this crow along the riverbank and
the water is really high and moving fast
and I can tell that this crew is leaving
Shady closer and closer to the edge and
all of a sudden I hear a big splash I
turn and I see little Shady’s head
bobbing in and out of the cold water and
she’s flapping her legs in total panic I
try and reach for her but she’s too far
away from the shore I try and follow her
downstream but there’s this big bush in
the way so I run like mad and Shady’s
dog paddling like mad but she is losing
her fight with the current so I plunge
right into that freezing water and I
grabbed hold of Shady’s collar and I
fight that current and halt her and me
out of that freezing water and out onto
the shore now I am trembling in fear and
clinging to shady but she won’t have it
she is up and shaking and barking and
howling and doing laps in the sand she’s
acting crazy and then this crew starts
acting crazy
and then the other crows join in cawing
and swooping and then the seagulls it’s
like all of the river bank breaks into
song with Shady and in no time at all
Shady’s back chasing that crow doing
exactly what she was doing before she
fell in and that’s when I realized what
just happened
shady has used her voice to howl and
shake the fear right out of her body and
Mother Nature has used her voice to
support her and what am i doing
trembling in fear and choking on this
shady taught me a very important lesson
that day that you always have a choice
and you can sit there choking on your
fear or you can be more like shady and
howl and shake the fear right out of
your body too because your voice is
meant to be used so that’s what I did I
yelled and I screamed and the next thing
you know I’m a pile of tears in the sand
at first I’m crying over my fear of
losing shady but then I can’t stop
crying and crying I start to sob and
wail I’m like a wounded animal howling
and when shady starts barking and that
crow starts kind and all of mother
nature breaks into song for me i howl
for my little songbird who lost her song
I have for that 13 year old girl who
didn’t know she was allowed to cry out
when bad things happen to her and I howl
for all of my sisters who’ve been hurt
and
how until there is no shame left in me
and the burning lump in my throat is
gone for the first time in years my
voice feels free I feel free the
violence is no longer lodged in my body
and my little songbird wants to sing
again well the next time I see Silvia I
tell her everything about shady and the
birds and the howling and mother
nature’s song of love and she just looks
at me and smiles and reaches into her
medicine bundle and this time hands me a
pouch of tobacco now I’m in shock
because no one’s ever handed me tobacco
come sing for your people my girl your
voice is a gift with this tobacco I am
asking you to use your gift to help heal
your people sing for all those women who
can’t whose voices have been stolen our
I am sacred and so are you and so is
every single woman alive on this planet
and those of you who have been violated
and who have suffered violence and maybe
choking in silence right now let me use
my voice to remind you how valuable you
are you are sacred and you can stop some
of the violence in our world by
reclaiming your sacredness and by adding
your voice to the women to the chorus of
women and men saying no more I will be
silent no more say that with me I will
be silent no more one more time I will
be silent no more well I accept that
tobacco and just like my little songbird
did when I was a little girl I sing for
my people I sing a song that rallies the
courage of my sisters and the compassion
of my brothers because I finally get it
we’re in this together when we come
together as one when we raise our voice
as one we can do anything when birds of
a feather sing and take wing together a
murmur becomes roar when one plus a bill
voices sore
there can be silence no more I will be
silent no more no more violence against
women no more turning against what is
sacred no more silent bystanders and no
more silence when one plus a billion
voices soar sing with me
there can be silence no more I will be
silent no more one more time even if you
have a lump in your throat let’s raise our voice as one I will be