Feminism is a process. Present inequities and privileges continue to oppress and inform our culture and community- for better and for worse. We invite you to join with us as we continue to learn and grow in our process. Dismantling systems of oppression and uplifting voices which have been oppressed takes all of us, in different ways, and these acknowledgements are a small part of our process as agents of change and increasing our inclusivity.

Land and Labor Acknowledgement

Due to the erasure of indigenous people, their voices, and their cultures, we are called to make this acknowledgment as part of bringing more awareness and recognition in ourselves and our community. Indigenous people are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness, have high rates of suicide, have low rates of access to healthcare and health insurance, and suffer incarceration than white populations- these issues are part of our work. Womankind was founded on and continues to occupy land appropriated and colonized as Concord, New Hampshire. We acknowledge and honor the first stewards and storytellers of this land; the Abenaki (Alnobak in native language) and Pennacook peoples of N’Dakinna. Indigenous people are not gone and they continue lives on unceded land. There are thousands of indigenous people within the New Hampshire borders.

The genocide and violent displacement of indigenous people has stripped generations of people of the right to life and liberty, a home, an identity, a sense of belongingness, generational progress, and to feel attached within a place and community. Local indigenous groups in New Hampshire are not federally recognized, instead being classified as Canadian- an example of ongoing discrimination and invalidation with colonialist structures being used to justify inequality and maleficence. Indigenous people from many places are part of our local community and deserve to be recognized.

The historic statue of Hannah Duston is also part of our local community. The statue celebrates violence perpetrated against indigenous people, but also represents violence against women and children (including Hannah herself, who was a victim of kidnapping) and it is the first statue in the United States to recognize a woman. The historical information at the historic site does not adequately reflect the story of the indigenous people, children, or Hannah. We recognize the complexities of intersectionality often underline that anyone’s oppressor is our oppressor.

Womankind does not exist free from labor stolen unjustly or from the consequences of generations and present day forced labor from enslaved peoples, human trafficking, and exploitation of marginalized people. We recognize that we are complicit in a system which continues to benefit from exploitation and forced labor and we strive to minimize our participation (e.g. time, energy, financial investments) in oppressive systems and instead participate in new and reparative systems when possible. We endeavor to celebrate the contributions of historically oppressed, marginalized, and erased people and use our positions to lift and defend oppressed people and communities. We acknowledge the labor inequities and shared responsibility in disempowering systemic oppression daily.

Decolonizing and Depatriarchalization of Mental Health

Womankind recognizes the harm and violence which problems such as colonization, imperialism, patriarchal orientation, and denial of rematriation to land have caused and continue to cause individuals, generations, communities, and society. There is generational trauma, modern violence, and ongoing injustices and oppression which debilitate diversity in our communities. Through our work, we aim to respectfully recognize, acknowledge, and support wellbeing from the profound, harmful implications of oppression, genocide, forced displacement, and other forms of violence against people. Marginalized populations have experienced violence and harm from the mental health field in many insidious forms including abject racism, sexism, ablism, perpetuation of a gender binary, and heteronormativity. Harm against oppressed populations has taken the form of research experimentation, diagnoses, treatments (e.g. conversion therapy, sterilization, lobotomy), gatekeeping, exploitation of labor and bodies, and dismissal of non-Eurocentric understandings of health which invalidate other ways of being, knowing, and healing. Euro- and American-centricity have been core, and detrimental, to the mental health field as we know it presently.

We recognize and give appreciation for structures we use (such as consensus, non-hierarchical decision making, and EMDR therapy) which have roots in indigenous beliefs, practices, and communities. We know that individuals are the expert on their own experiences and deserve to be honored as such. We work to promote egalitarian therapeutic relationships and power dynamics in healthcare, honoring intersectionality in all its evolving forms. We work in the therapeutic space, through policy transformations, with education, and through advocacy to better recognize and remove barriers to human rights and healthcare equity for our communities. Using guidance from the sentiment nothing about us, without us, we act to liberate people and communities from oppression and imagine new, liberating ways to promote and support mental health.

These acknowledgments are not sufficient to capture the harm and challenges they briefly touch upon, nor do we pretend that acknowledgments are enough action for change or clarity of conscious. These acknowledgements are part of our ongoing, evolving work to provide care and support to our community. We hope that these statements will continue to guide us and to inspire others to find meaningful actions in the complex process of Feminism.

It is important to show respect by pronouncing these words correctly:

PRONOUNCATION OF ABENAKI WORDS:
KOAS : COOS
ABENAKI: A-ben-A-kee
WABANAKI : WA-ben-A-kee
NDAKINNA : IN-DAH-kee-NAH
KOASEK: KO-a-SUK
ALNOBAK: AL-no-BAA

Links & Further Reading

https://nativegov.org/ native governance center

https://www.nh.gov/folklife/learning-center/traditions/native-american.htm

https://koasekabenakination.com/

http://www.nhptv.org/kn/itv/ournh/ournhtg2.htm

https://native-land.ca/

Native American Labor

Indigenous Hop Pickers in Western Washington – Hans Zeiger, HistoryLink.org, October 2021

The Enslaved Native Americans Who Made The Gold Rush Possible – Erin Blakemore, History.com, August 2018

Slavery By Another Name – Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California, a project of ACLU of Northern California

Native American Captivity and Slavery in North America, 1492–1848 – Ann Little, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, February 2022

“These Indians Are Apparently Well to Do”: The Myth of Capitalism and Native American Labor – Vera Parham, September 2012

Forced Labor

Forced Labor in the United States – Becky Giovagnoni and Mary Nikkel, The Exodus Road, July 2021

List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor – Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor

Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States – Free the Slaves & Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, September 2004

Prison Labor

Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers – The ACLU and the Global Human Rights Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School, 2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Duston

https://www.mhanational.org/issues/native-and-indigenous-communities-and-mental-health

https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/Indigenous