WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.720 I was taught that a ribbon skirt and a ribbon dress  00:00:06.720 --> 00:00:09.869 within each ribbon is the prayer for that person 00:00:09.869 --> 00:00:12.880 and a prayer for the people. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.640 Everything about a ribbon dress or a ribbon skirt tells a story.  00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:18.632 What do we learn from the story 00:00:18.632 --> 00:00:22.903 and how does that story protect us? 00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:28.157 Seattle was the original epicenter of COVID-19. 00:00:28.157 --> 00:00:29.600 Probably one of the most frightening times   00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:33.200 I've ever lived through as a public health professional. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:34.937 Here at the Seattle Indian Health Board, 00:00:34.937 --> 00:00:38.640 we just weren't getting everything that we needed. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.404 We had folks sewing fabric masks because we were 00:00:41.404 --> 00:00:44.259 running so low on PPE for our providers. 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:47.256 It was a really scary time and we were doing everything we could, 00:00:47.256 --> 00:00:48.567 but it simply wasn't enough 00:00:48.567 --> 00:00:50.640 because we didn't have what we needed. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.748 So we put out a call to our county, 00:00:52.748 --> 00:00:55.011 our state and our federal partners — 00:00:55.011 --> 00:00:58.006 those that are meant  to supply community health centers, 00:00:58.006 --> 00:01:01.360 Indian health services providers with essential PPE. 00:01:01.360 --> 00:01:03.721 We were really excited when we got what we 00:01:03.721 --> 00:01:06.160 thought was a box of PPE. 00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:09.000 Unfortunately, when we open that box instead what we found 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.975 was a box of body bags. 00:01:10.975 --> 00:01:14.442 These body bags were the perfect metaphor 00:01:14.442 --> 00:01:17.108 for how Native people have been treated in this country. 00:01:17.108 --> 00:01:18.998 That they're more willing to let us die 00:01:18.998 --> 00:01:21.435 and give us what we need to bury our people 00:01:21.435 --> 00:01:25.194 than they are to find us the things that not only we need, 00:01:25.194 --> 00:01:27.175 but we have a legal right to, 00:01:27.175 --> 00:01:30.543 to ensure that our people not only survive, but thrive. 00:01:32.160 --> 00:01:33.915 I took a body bag out. 00:01:33.915 --> 00:01:35.840 And when I folded it in half, 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:40.240 I could see the dress that I made before it was actually done. 00:01:40.240 --> 00:01:42.000 I took some fabric. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.960 It is all these woodland flowers all woven together, 00:01:44.960 --> 00:01:47.500 a connection to the land, a connection to the earth 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:49.028 and to our responsibility 00:01:49.028 --> 00:01:51.600 to hold on to who we are as traditional people. 00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:53.933 So that was the very first thing I did was lay 00:01:53.933 --> 00:01:57.680 that fabric on the inside of this body bag. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:00.799 The sleeves of the dress were probably   00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:03.024 one of the hardest things to make. 00:02:03.024 --> 00:02:05.299 It is the toe tags. 00:02:05.299 --> 00:02:07.935 If I intertwine these with the ribbon, 00:02:07.935 --> 00:02:10.641 they actually look like some of the designs and patterns 00:02:10.641 --> 00:02:13.379 that we would have on our traditional ribbon dresses. 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:15.223 And I can reclaim them in this way. 00:02:15.223 --> 00:02:17.777 And the little string that hangs off 00:02:17.777 --> 00:02:20.480 that you're supposed to tie on somebody's toe 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:22.962 that can be repurposed and look like the fringe 00:02:22.962 --> 00:02:25.350 that we might put on a ribbon dress. 00:02:25.350 --> 00:02:28.556 I picked the color red for all of the stitching. 00:02:28.556 --> 00:02:31.673 And that's because from my cultural beliefs for the Pawnee people, 00:02:31.673 --> 00:02:34.560 I was told red is the first color.  00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.920 It's also the color of prayer, the color of strength,  00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:42.079 and it also is the color of the sacredness of women. 00:02:42.079 --> 00:02:44.470 And so I sewed those stitches really jagged, 00:02:44.470 --> 00:02:47.231 and then I purposefully then made them straight. 00:02:47.231 --> 00:02:51.280 To show, yes, we grieve, we mourn, we cry, we sing.  00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:56.085 We spend time with each other and our families and we heal.  00:02:56.085 --> 00:03:00.459 Because we need to get back on that path. 00:03:00.459 --> 00:03:04.224 In the midst of covid-19, we've seen an eight percent increase 00:03:04.224 --> 00:03:06.335 in domestic violence nationwide. 00:03:06.335 --> 00:03:09.788 And in a recent survey that my organization did of Native women, 00:03:09.788 --> 00:03:13.848 we found that 20 percent of them have seen their safety 00:03:13.848 --> 00:03:17.120 being threatened as a result of covid-19 and being quarantined   00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.713 with abusers or being abused in other ways. 00:03:20.713 --> 00:03:23.485 I wanted to recognize that 00:03:23.485 --> 00:03:25.759 and also honor those that we've lost 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:29.547 as a result of them being murdered and missing.  00:03:29.547 --> 00:03:33.153 And so I put what the movement has always had, 00:03:33.153 --> 00:03:35.828 and that is a hand, a red hand. 00:03:35.828 --> 00:03:39.478 The hand is both one that shows the loss, it shows 00:03:39.478 --> 00:03:44.302 the prayer and it shows the strength of our fight. 00:03:44.302 --> 00:03:46.420 My fingerprints are there on purpose. 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:48.480 My handprints are there for my sons, 00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:50.562 if I was to ever go missing or be murdered 00:03:50.562 --> 00:03:53.939 and my body needed to be identified. 00:03:55.447 --> 00:03:59.891 Those mirrors, they are deflecting, they are reflecting 00:03:59.891 --> 00:04:02.160 and they are a shield. 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:06.075 It needs to reflect back to whoever dared send us body bags 00:04:06.075 --> 00:04:07.855 instead of PPE. 00:04:07.855 --> 00:04:09.956 It needs to reflect back to them. 00:04:09.956 --> 00:04:13.680 And it also needs to deflect the terribleness 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:18.920 in which Native people have been treated in this country. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:24.856 When I made it originally, it was for healing for me.  00:04:24.856 --> 00:04:27.020 And then I realized it had the opportunity 00:04:27.020 --> 00:04:29.747 to be healing for other people, 00:04:29.747 --> 00:04:32.960 Connecting with my ancestors and my cultural traditions   00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:37.280 is what allowed me to move forward in not only making the dress,   00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:39.607 but also allowed me to move forward in being 00:04:39.607 --> 00:04:42.080 able to be strong in the work that I had to do 00:04:42.080 --> 00:04:44.733 when I come into the Seattle Indian Health Board every day 00:04:44.733 --> 00:04:47.040 ready to fight for our people. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.383 We have done some of the most innovative work 00:04:49.383 --> 00:04:52.880 in the country, around not only providing covid testing,   00:04:52.880 --> 00:04:54.710 but also now vaccinations. 00:04:54.710 --> 00:04:57.124 We have not only adapted, 00:04:57.124 --> 00:04:59.696 we have done it in a way that has allowed our community 00:04:59.696 --> 00:05:04.450 to thrive despite all of the obstacles of covid-19. 00:05:04.450 --> 00:05:08.722 And yet I still see my people dying around me. 00:05:08.722 --> 00:05:12.625 And even though we have done a lot with very little, 00:05:12.625 --> 00:05:15.345 it's not fair, it's not justice,  00:05:15.345 --> 00:05:19.920 and we still have to wake up every single day and fight. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:22.880 I hope that other Native people, when they see this,  00:05:22.880 --> 00:05:25.729 know that we don't have to just accept 00:05:25.729 --> 00:05:27.440 body bags for our people. 00:05:27.440 --> 00:05:30.960 We only have to accept a world where we are thriving  00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:33.609 and our communities are ever continuing. 00:05:33.609 --> 00:05:35.680 That was the hope of our ancestors 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:37.804 and that is what we have the ability to do 00:05:37.804 --> 00:05:41.173 for the next generations.