Latino and African American people are disproportionately impacted by Alzheimer’s. In fact, by 2030 African Americans and Latinos will make up 40 percent of Alzheimer’s patients in the United States. To combat this, these communities need equal access to healthcare and more information about brain health from people they trust – and nurses are among the most trusted voices in communities across the country.
Join the Webinar to discuss brain health equity on Sunday, November 20th, 6-7 PM Eastern, hosted by Dyanne Rodriguez, DNP, MPH, a Fellow of the US Against Alzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity.
Dr. Dyanne Rodriguez, RN, has earned her MPH from the University of Alaska Anchorage and DNP from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work as a public health nurse leader includes a focus on education, Canadian and U.S healthcare systems, health promotion and outreach. Dr. Rodriguez has committed her focus in public health through collaborating with communities and healthcare team members. She currently works in urban/rural acute care centers, is a faculty lecturer and an active community member.
Contributors: Marsha Fowler, Deborah Kenny & Elizabeth Peter
Introduction
Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, it became apparent that immediate action is needed, as innocent lives continue to be lost. We nurses are in a perfect position to do so. Nurses have a large, trusted, and strong voice to advocate for the Ukrainian people and issue a call to action for legislators to put an end to these amoral acts. Sometimes during war, civilian collateral damage is unfortunate and inevitable, but Russia’s targeting of healthcare facilities, churches, schools, and other non-military objectives clearly represents war crimes. To assist all nurses in this advocacy, Dr. Marsha Fowler (US) crafted the attached letter with further input from Dr. Deborah Kenny (US).
Please download and distribute widely the attached letter via your professional social networks and organizational channels. Send to your state Congressional representatives or other leaders representing your individual country. Please tailor for your own country as necessary. Distribute it to nursing students to show them how to advocate through policy action. Together nurses can have a tangible and significant impact on the global health and wellbeing of all individuals. Nurses can be a compelling force for good in the world. Call upon your respective nations governments to take swift and decisive action to end these war crimes against humanity.
US nurses: We encourage each nurse to contact your own Congressional legislators (or legislative body members) and the White House. Congressional members can be found through https://www.congress.gov/members. Additionally, nurses can flood the White House switchboard at (202) 456-1414. It is staffed by live volunteers who tally calls. Call the White House to express your concern and you may use the letter as a template.
Attn: President Biden, Vice President Harris, Sec. Blinken, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Congress, Chairman Milley, Secretary–General Guterres, President von der Leyen, President Roberta Metsola, Director–General Ghebreyesus:
We write to express our profound concern regarding the unjustified, unprovoked, and illegal invasion of Ukraine. Those who sign below represent nurse-leaders, many specializing in bioethics and, as such, we hold dear human life, health, well-being, human solidarity, dignity, freedom, and social justice as core values of our profession. These core values of the nursing profession, affirmed by the fields of bioethics, ethics, and social ethics, are themselves desecrated in Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Our concerns and requests are several:
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations to hold President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accountable for multiple and egregious violations of the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its associated Additional Protocols, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Under Mr. Putin’s command, the Russian military have committed numerous violations of these regulations, conventions, protocols, and statutes. In particular, we draw your attention to violations of Geneva Conventions that specifically require:
respect for “hospital and safety zones and localities so organized as to protect from the effects of war, wounded, sick and aged persons, children under fifteen, expectant mothers and mothers of children under seven.”
respect for neutralized zones
protection of civilian hospitals
that “Persons regularly and solely engaged in the operation and administration of civilian hospitals, including the personnel engaged in the search for, removal and transporting of and caring for wounded and sick civilians, the infirm and maternity cases, shall be respected and protected.
that “Convoys of vehicles or hospital trains on land or specially provided vessels on sea, conveying wounded and sick civilians, the infirm and maternity cases, shall be respected and protected in the same manner as the hospitals provided for…”
Moreover, we express our outrage at the multiple violations of virtually every regulation under Article 51 of the Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of the Civilian Population. These have been made visible to the public through multinational war correspondents. The Hague and Geneva Law identify many of these violations as war crimes, e.g., the illegal use of thermobaric blast weapons against civilians and civilian sites.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations to investigate, document, retain evidence, and try Mr. Putin for the commission of war crimes, genocide, crimes of aggression, and crimes against humanity, consistent with the evidence that is obtained, including but not limited to:
Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;
Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;
Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives;
Making improper use of a flag of truce, of the flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy
Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives;
Pillaging a town or place, even when taken by assault;
Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict. (From: Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court)
While sanctions do not stop material aggression, harm, and damage to life, infrastructure, and environment, we call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations to place, consistently tighten, and maintain sanctions against Mr. Putin and his government so that he is economically and forcibly constrained in his action.
Mr. Putin has waged an unprovoked and unjustified war on a sovereign, democratic nation and has indicated his intent to carry through to the end his invasion until he achieves the full surrender, submission, and subjugation of the Ukrainian people. He has thus indicated that he will not negotiate withdrawal, rendering diplomatic solutions null. He has also indicated that sanctions will not affect his plans for Ukraine. Past statements have indicated his general contempt for Ukrainians and that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country. His invasion and wanton killing in Ukraine are genocidal. And, there is no indication that he will stop with Ukraine, following as it does his military actions in Syria, Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea—including the razing of Grozny.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations, to intervene with increased humanitarian aid both, for the Ukrainian nation and its refugees, and to increase aid to refugee-receiving nations and conflict adjacent nations.
In addition to increased governmental aid, we ask that a central website be established for Americans (and in other nations) with links to authenticated governmental or non-governmental organizations, where donations can be specified for and directed toward aid to Ukrainians and/or Ukraine resistance and Ukrainian refugees.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations, to markedly increase aid to the Ukrainian citizenry to increase their capacity for resistance to Russian invasion.
We support increasing the supply of rations/food, protective gear, field first aid and medical supplies, communications equipment, and those supplies necessary to support the resistance of the Ukrainian people. In addition, we also support the provision of arms, weapons, munitions, armored vehicles, armored fighting vehicles, planes, surveillance equipment, drones, classified surveillance information, cybersecurity expertise, and more.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations, to provide for the medical and nursing needs of the Ukrainian populace, and nurses (and physicians) giving care under wartime conditions.
This war follows upon the heels of the Covid pandemic which had already strained medical and nursing resources in Ukraine. We ask our nation and the UN and its member nations to increase its provision of medical and nursing resources including but not limited to clothing, birthing kits, hygiene kits; cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing supplies and equipment; medical and surgical supplies and instruments; head lamps; tourniquets, bandages, and wound care kits; nutrition support for infants, children, and adults; blankets, towels, diapers, isolettes, bassinets, medications, antibiotics, and infusions; disposable scrubs; ambulances, and stretchers. In addition, nurses and physicians are living in hospitals in Ukraine and need personal support with food, warm clothing, ground cold-barrier foam for sleeping, blankets, clothing, and personal care items.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations, to provide the necessities and comforts for the particularly vulnerable in Ukrainian society.
Many of the women, children and elderly persons have had to take cover in underground stations, basements, subway tunnels, and bunkers. We ask that our nation coordinate with NGOs and the International Red Cross to increase the donation of such things as clothing, shoes/boots and socks, blankets, ground-insulating foam rolls, food; child education and amusement kits and comfort toys; hygiene kits; feminine hygiene supplies, reading materials, communications tools; candles and flashlights and batteries, head lamps; supportive religious items; warm clothing, and other necessities.
We call upon the United States and the UN and its member nations to create collaborative and coordinated structures that can support the work of volunteer nurses and midwives who enter conflict zones to ameliorate the excess demands that fall upon the nursing and midwifery work of nationals in conflict zones.
The world is never free of war. War places even greater demands upon both military and civilian nurses and midwives. We call for the creation of an international structure and system of coordination and support for nurse and midwife volunteers who are willing to serve in conflict zones. The remarkable Médecins Sans Frontières, is a model that could be extended to an international cooperative and collaborative system of organizations and agencies, that are materially supplied by their nations of origin or international donations.
We are, collectively, horrified both at the invasion and the conduct of this war. As Mr. Putin appears to accept no diplomatic solution other than utter surrender and accession of the Ukrainian nation and its people into Russia, we ask our nation, and the UN and its member states, to do all in their power to force an end to this war, to maintain the sovereignty of the Ukrainian nation and its populace, to aid the Ukrainian resistance, to bring aid to the people of Ukraine and its refugees, to aid refugee–receiving nations, and to harden other nations against Russian expansionism, invasion and cyberattack.
In affirmation of the dignity of human life; the value of health, well-being, respect, and freedom; the hallowed nature of the natural environment, and our commitment to justice and peace as nurses and bioethicists, we humbly submit these requests and urge stringent intervention to halt this unjustified war, to punish war crimes, and to restore Ukraine and the Ukrainian people to sovereign status.
This poem has been inspired by my experiences of racism and discrimination in healthcare and nursing education. In the first part of this poem, I portray my experiences of discrimination in healthcare starting from the ambulance’s refusal to take me to the hospital to nurses under recognition of my pain, all due to ongoing appendicitis. I later illustrate an experience of racial discrimination in the form of exclusion as a Masters student in my school. These experiences were pivotal in not only making me realize the racialized world that I was a part of yet I did not acknowledge and recognize for a very long time but was significant in radically changing the trajectory of my thesis from end-of-life care to racism in nursing. These racialized experiences undoubtedly lowered my confidence and belonging, further oppressing me at times but was also a final thread to my unbearable urge to fight for social justice in nursing. I have now healed myself from these racial injuries with the validation, support, and mentorship from many allies and minority nurses. I am also proudly liberated from oppression. However, nursing education and healthcare continue to become a hostile place for racialized nurses and this poetry piece is a starting point of my reflective activism in fighting systemic racial injustices in nursing.
I open my eyes, I see my partner scream at me begging me to wake up I see myself lying on the kitchen floor Cannot recall where I was before His eyes so desperate, his voice shaken, and his soul fragile Never had I seen him so agile Ambulance arrives with such an ease So were the paramedic attendees He tells me that I cannot be served sounding reserved My unbearable pain did not matter, not enough to receive attention I question myself, why am I an exemption? His disengaged eyes and white skin Nice racism as it is, nothing less than a brutal sin Would my pain ever matter? Will my pain ever be enough? I could see my shadow and my feet yet I am unnoticeable I am just a brown immigrant and my superpower is to be invisible
I stand there in front of my nurse in the hospital three feet away Hoping that he would look at me without delay He is sharing jokes with his colleagues As if that is one of his side gigs I question to myself: why aren’t his jokes funny to me? Or is it my pain that is more bothersome to me I bend down to put my hands on my knees That is all I have to support my unease I talk to myself inside my head ‘don’t fall’ ‘Please can someone give me a medication to relieve this downfall’ I am clearly visible yet unseeable Proof are these blank stares of disapproval I could see my shadow and my feet yet I am unnoticeable I am just a brown immigrant and my superpower is to be invisible
I sit there in a chair in front of my nursing professor Her evil smirk, I still clearly remember She proceeds to tell me that I do not belong here in nursing Her words come out in such ease As if dehumanizing racialized students was her expertise All I hear in my soul is how dare that I am ambitious Making my white professor have this urge to be this malicious I walk outside her office, trying to make sense of the event that made me so nauseous I could feel the warmth of my face increasing As if my body and mind is exploding The feeling of being unwanted and unwelcomed is suffocating The proud nurse that I am but this feels humiliating I could see my shadow and my feet yet I am unnoticeable I am just a brown immigrant and my superpower is to be invisible
I question to myself ‘why me’? Why don’t I have the courage to say ‘try me’? A realization that racism and discrimination will be never-ending A choice at hand either oppression or liberation Oppression appears familiar, expected, and feasible Liberation seems disobedient, challenging, and impossible I desire love and humanity I choose liberation and nonconformity I refuse to be dehumanized by thousand cuts I refuse to be silenced, asserts my blood and guts The invisible brown immigrant is now awake Unwilling to go back to sleep She fights, persists, and continues to exist Unaccepting to be dismissed She now sees her shadow and her feet, and fights to be noticeable She is now an empowered brown immigrant regardless of white disapproval And, her superpower is her non-negotiable demand to be visible
About Binita Thapa
My name is Binita Thapa, an immigrant, a daughter of immigrant parents, an internationally educated nurse, and the first university graduate in my family. I completed my Practical Nursing degree from Centennial College followed by BScN from Ryerson University. I am currently a PhD in nursing student at the University of Ottawa. I am deeply passionate about social justice in nursing. As a woman of colour in nursing education and someone who endlessly faces systemic marginalization and racialization in my nursing school, my goal is to continue to have a voice for myself and for other racialized students. My doctoral thesis is focused on developing a post-colonial and anti-racist foundation for graduate nursing curriculum at the University of Ottawa.
Contributors: Jeneile Luebke, Jacqueline Callari-Robinson, Elizabeth Rice; Ashley Ruiz, Kaylen Moore
As nurse scholars, allies and advocates, our hearts are broken as we collectively share the horror of yet another woman lost to gender-based violence and express empathy for the family and friends of Gabby Petito. There are no words to describe the loss of a brilliant loving woman, and all too often, this is our reality and the emotional distress we experience in our work as healers. As practicing forensic nurses, scholars, and advocates we see and anticipate this trauma far too often, and it is our working reality. As antiracist and social justice activists, we are committed to sharing stories that all lives lost should be met with the same outrage and immediate response, quick compassion, justice. As Indigenous women and allies, we are using our collective voices to highlight the systemic racism, oppression, and injustice that exists in response to survivors of gender-based violence among Indigenous women by police and mainstream media.
“Sisters by Choice, United by Voice” Pictured from left to right: Lori Rice, Jaqui Callari-Robinson, Elizabeth Rice, CJ Figgins-Hunter, Jeneile Luebke, Lucy Mkandawire-Vahlmu, photographed at the Lac Courte Oreilles Women’s Emergency Shelter. This photo represents the sisterhood of community and academic partners coming together to address the crisis of gender based violence among ethnic minority women.
Anyone can be a victim of sexual abuse or intimate partner violence, but some communities are at greater risk after a sexual assault, and the response to their victimization is not heard or felt with the same compassion. Indigenous women are disproportionately impacted by gender-based violence including intimate partner violence and sexual assault (McKinley; Luebke, 2021). The US National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) revealed that 84.7 percent of Indigenous women experienced gender-based violence during their lifetime, and 56.1 percent of Indigenous women and 25.5 percent of men have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime (Rosay, 2016). Indigenous women in the United States also have some of the highest rates of homicide perpetrated against them compared to other racially defined groups; homicide is the third-leading cause of death among Indigenous girls ages 1-19 and the sixth-leading cause of death for Indigenous women ages 20-44 (CDC, 2020).
The unjust crisis of gender-based violence against Indigenous women began with the earliest colonial contact. Violence against Indigenous women became a means of colonial conquest by European settlers through the social construction of Indigenous women as subhuman, exotic, and sexually promiscuous, leading to the idea that Indigenous women were (and still are) deserving of sexual violation (Casselman, 2016; Deer, 2015; Luebke, 2021). Sadly, this violence continues into the present time. For example, Native American women and children make up to 40% or more of sex trafficking victims in some states, even though they represent only 1-2% of the general population (Native Hope, 2021).
Indigenous women also experience systemic injustice and prejudice through erasure and invisibility, fueled by a lack of media coverage when they have gone missing or murdered. Racialized and stereotypes are still pervasive in contemporary representations of Indigenous women in all aspects of society. When media reports occur about Indigenous women who are missing or murdered, the reports often sensationalize and normalize the violence in tribal communities. Playing on centuries of historical and intergenerational violence, the media coverage of our MMIW is often infused with undertones of stereotypes and assumptions of our communities with references to drugs, alcohol, sex work, and victim-blaming, and shaming after experiences with gender-based violence (Native Hope, 2021).
Conversely, when an affluent, white woman goes missing, it often comprises nationwide manhunts, alerts, an outpouring of prayers and support from the public, and round-the-clock news coverage. Currently, the world has recently witnessed the disappearance and recovery of the body of Gabby Petito. The police and FBI response was swift and immediate after Gabby’s family reported her missing on September 11, ten days after her 23-year-old boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, returned home from a months-long cross-country trip in the van without her. After her reported disappearance, a media obsession and sensation began with frequent updates in national and international news outlets. A google search on September 22, 2021, yielded 2,910,000,000 hits for “Gabby Petito.” Sommers (2016) discusses this very issue of race and gender disparities in the media by highlighting the “white missing white woman syndrome”. Time and time again, we see round the clock news coverage when a white affluent woman goes missing, while Indigenous and other women of color are not seen as deserving of such valuable media coverage. It is critical to note that widespread media coverage of a missing woman can make the difference between life or death. Widespread media coverage often aids in the timely discovery of a missing woman, subsequently saving her life, as well as perpetrator being caught or not.
In contrast, the disappearance of young Indigenous women such as Katelyn Kelly, an enrolled member of the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin, received minimal media coverage limited to local media sources. Katlyn was missing for nine months before her remains were finally recovered, and her family could grieve their loss, in comparison to the eight days that it took authorities to locate the body of Gabby Petito (Bezucha, 2021). It was because of grassroots efforts from the Native community who performed endless searches, held vigils and gatherings to raise awareness about her disappearance. Katelyn and her family did not receive a national response, teams of forensic experts, and endless outpouring of support from around the country, even though they were deserving of it. In solidarity and collaboration with the Native community, we as recipients of a US Department of Justice FAST Grant, Tracking Our Truth, funded a billboard in hopes of gaining attention to finding this beautiful young soul while she was still missing.
“Sacred Site”. This is considered a sacred site on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation by tribal members. Our team was privileged and honored to be taken there by a tribal member to offer tobacco.
Many missing and murdered Indigenous women today remain unnamed and their disappearances unheard of or unknown. It is unknown how many Indigenous women, men, and children are currently missing or have been murdered in the US. Collecting and tracking accurate data has yet to be prioritized by our local, state, and federal authorities. There are thousands of reports of missing Indigenous women and girls every year, and few of them make it to the Department of Justice missing person database (NAMUS). For example, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing Indigenous women and girls nationally, and only 116 of those were logged into the NAMUS database (Urban Indian Health Institute, 2018). In Wyoming, the state that Gabby Petito went missing from, there are at least 710 Indigenous people, mostly women and girls, reported missing between 2011 and 2020 (Wyoming MMIW Task Force, 2021). A google search for “MMIW,” also on September 22, 2021, yields 679,000 hits. The lack of media coverage of our MMIW relatives sends a clear message to women that they are not “worthy victims” deserving of media attention and valuable law enforcement resources, leading to further systemic oppression and violence against our people.
Highlighting the pervasiveness of racial disparities and inequities that exist surrounding the phenomenon of missing and murdered Indigenous women has implications for practicing nurses and allies. As with any survivor, it is crucial to recognize that the complex layers of current and historical trauma and resultant health disparities when working with Indigenous communities. Given the colonial history of intergenerational and historical trauma experienced by Indigenous women, the first step that for nurses delivering services to address gender-based violence is to have a clear understanding of the traumatic effects of colonization and the impacts of violence, as well as developing confidence in the types of culturally safe and trauma informed care that will be effective (National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, 2021). Trauma informed care and practice embraces a recovery focused, strengths-based approach, with an understanding and response to the neurobiological impacts of trauma. Trauma informed care emphasizes the psychological, physical, and emotional safety of survivors while consistently providing opportunities for the personal control and empowerment of survivors (National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, 2021; Klingspohn, 2018). This ensures that we as nurses actively resist the perpetuation of trauma and oppression of our patients, while simultaneously building trust with survivors and their communities.
As recipients of the United States, FAST Grant, Tracking Our Truth, we value the opportunity given to us by our community partners Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe (LCO), Gerald Ignace Indian Health Care Center (GIHC). We commit to advocating for all individuals and working side-by-side to create access to Advocacy driven Medical Forensic programming that is survivor-led and Native community-centered. Through this grant, we have learned to listen attentively and value the insights shared with us. All programing and outreach are contingent on consensus, as is this blog and all information and actions related to this project. We commit to showing humility, leading from behind, ensuring that our activities are antiracist, and listening for feedback. In a previous Nursology blog we omitted one of our valuable partners and were accountable for our actions with a commitment never to repeat the act of exclusion. As we continue to work on this project, we will amplify the voices of the community, listen with respect, and continue to nurture this sacred opportunity to build and value relationships to offer access to advocacy-driven medical forensic care. Last week former District Attorney of Ashland County and Wisconsin Representative Sean Duffy was complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes and oppression on National television. He was quoted saying, “They burned villages, raped women, seized children, and took land,” referring to the American Indian communities in Wisconsin. He also stated that “the conditions from Native Americans have everything to do with government dependency, cycles of poverty and alcoholism, and family breakdowns”, with zero evidence or factual basis for his claims (Native News Online, 2021). Upon hearing this news, we immediately acted, sharing this news and video with our National FAST Grant partners and the Social Justice Committee of the International Association of Forensic Nurses. We commit to advocating for American Indian Communities, using our privilege as nurses.
References
Bezucha, D. (24 September 2021). A Special Feature in Wisconsin’s 2020 Domestic Abuse Homicide Report Points to Need for More Accurate MMIW Data. Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved from: https://www.wpr.org/were-forgotten-new-report-draws-long- overdue-attention-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-girls.
Casselman, A. L. (2016). Injustice in Indian country: Jurisdiction, American law, and sexual violence against native women. New York: Peter Lang.
Deer, S. (2015). The beginning and end of rape: Confronting sexual violence in native America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Luebke, J., Hawkins, M; Lucchesi, A., Weitzel, J., Deal, E., Ruiz, A., Dressel, A. & Mkandawire-Valhmu, L (2021). The Utility of Using a Postcolonial and Indigenous Feminist Framework in Research and Practice about Intimate Partner Violence against American Indian Women. Journal of Transcultural Nursing. 32(6) 639-646. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659621992602
Klingspohn, D. M. (2018). The importance of culture in addressing domestic violence for First Nation’s women. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(JUN). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00872
McKinley, C. E., & Knipp, H. (2021). “You Can Get Away with Anything Here… No Justice at All”- Sexual Violence Against U.S. Indigenous Females and Its Consequences. Gender Issues, (0123456789). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-021-09291-6
Sommers, Z. (2016). Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons. Journal ofCriminal Law & Criminology, 106(2). Retrieved from: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol106/iss2/4
Jeneile Luebke PhD, RN is an Anna Julia Cooper post-doctoral fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Nursing. She received her LPN/ADN degrees in Bemidji, MN, and her BS and MS in Nursing from UW-Madison, and her PhD in Nursing at UW-Milwaukee. Jeneile is an Anna Julia Cooper Post-Doctoral Nurse Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Nursing. She’s Anishinaabe/ Métis (enrolled member of Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa). Her area of research and expertise include gender-based violence in the lives of Indigenous women, community health and utilization and application of postcolonial and Indigenous feminist frameworks. She is a key part of a team of multi-site researchers who are involved in several community engaged research and service grants that aim to better understand the lived experiences of gender-based violence, as well as advocating for survivor-led, trauma informed, and culturally safe interventions and options for survivors of gender-based violence. Her other current work focuses on the impacts of gender-based violence on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous women and girls, particularly focusing upon the relationship between land violence and gender-based violence
Elizabeth Rice
Elizabeth Rice is an enrolled member of Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Director of the Lac Courte Oreilles Emergency Women’s Shelter.
Jacqueline Callari Robinson
Jacqueline Callari Robinson, BSN, RN, SANE-A/P, DF-IAFNis presently the Research Assistant for Tracking Our Truth, Department of Justice, FAST Grant, and a Ph.D. Student at The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Jacqueline’s clinical practice is a tele safe nurse for the United Concierge in Troy, New York, taking call to evaluate sexual assault patients. In 2020, Jacqueline edited the SANE A/P Preparation Manuscript, published by Springer Publishing Company. Her expertise is assessing and providing sexual abuse medical forensic care and training providers and systems to offer patient-centered compassionate care. Her present duties include oversight of the Advocacy Driven Medical Forensic Care to AI communities throughout Wisconsin, training nurses, program development, providing technical assistance, and Medical/Forensic program sustainability. Jacqueline also serves as Co-Chair of the IAFN Social Justice Committee, creates statewide protocols and procedures to develop survivor social systems response to sexual assault victims. In 2011 she was awarded the Distinguished Fellow award from The International Association of Forensic Nurses. Jacqueline also provides case consultation and technical assistance; and develops training materials, resources, and publications.
Ashley Ruiz
Ashley Ruiz, BSN, RN is a doctoral nursing student and clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. She is also a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) at Aurora Sinai in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through which she has contributed to enhancing excellence in nursing care by addressing the healthcare needs of women who have experienced violence. She began her nursing trajectory (CNA and ADN) at Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin, after which she practiced at a local magnet hospital. She received her BS in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee in 2015, while continuing a commitment to nursing practice through gaining experience within community health, long-term care, leadership, and in acute care settings. Through her experience in practice, Ashley began to identify gaps where healthcare providers failed to address the needs of patients who had experienced violence. Based on this experience, Ashley began to pursue a doctoral degree through the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. Her current work focuses on advancing feminist theory in nursing science for the purposes of providing a theoretical foundation for addressing the problem of violence against women, particularly for ethnically diverse populations.
Kaylen Moore
Kaylen Moore, BSN, CCRN, SANE-A, SANE-P. Kaylen Moore is currently a PhD nursing student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She earned her BSN from Marquette University in 2003. Kaylen began her career at Froedtert Hospital, a Level I trauma academic medical center, where she has held many leadership positions in Shared Governance and continues to be involved in nursing research. She has been a Forensic Nurse Examiner with Advocate Aurora Healthcare since 2013. She has contributed to forensic nursing practice and the trauma-informed care of sexual assault patients through her authorship of the chapters Medical Forensic Photography in the Sexual Assault Patient and Medical Forensic Documentation in the book IAFN Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Certification: A Review for the SANE-A® and SANE-P® Exams. Her research interest includes gender-based violence among ethnic minority women with a current focus on Black women survivors of intimate partner violence.
Social justice movements have historically incorporated arts based visual components to amplify their messages by using images and visual art to literally making the invisible more visible. Examples of this include Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party and the AIDS quilt.
As an arts based medium, quilts are powerful semiotic vehicles for protest and memory, and actual representations of comfort and care. Throughout history, suffragettes, abolitionists, enslaved people, Vietnam war protesters, and HIV/AIDS and 911 survivors have used fiber art and the quilt medium to come together in communal spaces for the purpose of grieving, memorializing and honoring others, and for communicating political opinions about important issues of the day.
This week, health care providers from the group called Doctors for Camp Closure, (D4CC) are coordinating a nationwide 24-hour protest vigils outside detention centers to draw attention to the serious risks of infection from CoVid-19 in detention centers and prisons nationwide. In solidarity and collaboration with community groups around the nation, D4CC are incorporating many arts based events including poetry reading, music, story telling, reflective journaling, and the creation of a virtual and actual protest quilt called the #D4CCQuiltProject.
Using the social media platform Instagram and the use of the project hashtags, the virtual #D4CCQuiltProject project will “sew” together images from the nationwide protest, banner messages, and other images or words drawing attention to the risks of CoVId-19 infection for detained and incarcerated people. The #D4CCQuiltProject can also spotlight less obvious historical and structural issues of the Capitalocene that are driving refugees to immigrate around the globe including persistent white settler colonialism, neoliberalism, militarization, persistent extraction of living and non living resources around the world by the Global North, and climate related extremes- all factors driving im/migration globally and to the US, and contributing to conditions of extreme poverty, violence, and food and water insecurity throughout the world. Structural violence issues
MIssion Statement: The #DetentionIsDeadly #FreeThemAll Quilt Project messages are intersectional social justice messages and may include these ideas among others :
Show healthcare worker support for the Free Them All movement to release people detained by ICE during COVID pandemic, draw media attention to the dangers of incarceration, and increase public support for decarceration
Prisons and detention centers are filled with impoverished Black and Indigenous People of Color, and Undocumented People, and they are increasingly the largest sites of COVID-19 infection
Social distancing in detention or prison to reduce the risk of COVID-19 is impossible.
As health care providers we oppose detention.
Many prisons and detention centers in the US are capitalist oppressive for-profit systems that filled with people who have been disadvantaged across generations by the very systems that now hold them prisoner.
Migration to the US is driven by intersectional issues for which we as US citizens are complicit including US colonialism, climate injustice, capitalist extractive industries, globalization and neoliberalism (think sugar, palm oil, hydroelectric power, coffee, lumber, beef, global agriculture to name a few).
Native American and Indigenous land rights issues in the US are erased within discussions of immigration. (One example among others is: May 2020 The Wampanoag Tribe in in Massachusetts are struggling to retain land rights).
LQBTQI issues get erased in the discussion of immigration and detention.
Project Vision
A virtual quilt that “sews” together square virtual images that align with the purpose of the action. and/or
An actual quilt that has names, images etc on fabric and that can be actually sewn together and/or
An intersectional art project that is open to the greater art community.
Project Guide: How to Participate
DIRECTIONS
There are TWO WAYS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE QUILT PROJECT
VIrtual Quilt
Take a square photo of any message or image that aligns with issues of social justice, examples above, open to interpretation; the only restriction is the photo/image must pass minimum standards for social media, ie) non vulgar non obscene etc
Can be poetry, single words or phrases, a photo of a flower, headline in news, anything, names of deceased persons to honor who have been impacted by structural violence, See some image examples below.
You may superimpose a message on a photo you already have. You may superimpose the project hashtags, or a message on a picture of your Protest Banner.
A Square image is needed to “fit them together “
Upload to Instagram with 3 primary hashtags #DetentionIsDeadly #FreeThemAll#D4CCQuiltProject
Secondary hashtags are fine too but you have to use these 3 so we can “find” the “images” on Instagram you can also Tag @doctorsforcampclosure
Ultimately, the images can be placed on colored squares see below and “sewn” virtually into a virtual quilt. This will happen in the near future after we have a number of images.
The quilt will be shared on social media to amplify the messages
Actual Quilt
During the vigil, before or up to two- four weeks after vigil, people can mail me 12 by 12 inch squares of actual fabric with messages hand written or sewn , and I will sew them together and make them onto a physical quilt.
Any fabric is acceptable but dimensions should be 12 inches by 12 inches
This is a way to get the public, friends, kids, and family members involved in this cause.
People can include the creation of a physical square as a way of reflecting during the 24 hour vigil. Think child art, spontaneous, no pressure to have any “art” or sewing skills. Just has to be about 12 by 12 fabric based no rules on type of fabric.
People can invite local community groups to participate in the creation of squares.
PM Jane Hopkins Walsh for address where to send fabric.
Fabric must reach me by +- June 15th 2020.
The actual quilt could be part of a larger traveling protest quilt that gets added on to in other future protests.
Ultimately the actual and the virtual quilt could be part of larger intersections with the art community to amplify and intersect our messages. For example we could have sew-ins in protest in NYC or other places, intersecting with other protests, or the quilt could travel to other cities and immigrant groups to include diverse social movements and groups all over. This is fluid and open to discussion as it unfolds.
EXAMPLES OF IMAGES BELOW- PLEASE IF YOU SHARE THESE IMAGES GIVE CREDIT AS LISTED BELOW.
Credit these 4 tags for this image above please @voxpopuliprintcollective @shimartnetwork #voxpopuliprintcollective #shimartnetwork
Credit for this image: from Twitter user@denimfemme Lou Murrey
Credit for the quilt images are Instagram @janewalsh357 #BorderQuiltProject
Credit for the two quilt images above are Instagram @janewalsh357 #BorderQuiltProject
Credit for this image @voxpopuliprintcollective @shimartnetwork #voxpopuliprintcollective #shimartnetwork
About Jane Hopkins Walsh
Protest Opinions in this document are My own Pronouns She / Her Jane Hopkins Walsh MSN, PNPC Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Primary Care at Longwood Boston Children’s Hospital 300 Longwood Ave Boston, MA 02466 jane.hopkins-walsh@childrens.harvard.edu
Volunteer and Board Member Cape CARES Central American Relief Efforts www.capecares.org
PhD Candidate and Research Fellow Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing Enrolled: Center for Human Rights and International Justice Lynch School of Education Jonas-Blaustein Scholar Cohort 2018-2020 walshjm@bc.edu
About Jane Hopkins Walsh
NurseManifest 