Recognizing the expertise of Black, Indigenous and people of color communities in sexual violence support work and violence prevention

Anyone can experience sexual violence. Even so, sexual violence can’t be separated from a broader context—one in which the person who is victimized, the person who has caused harm, and the community and systems surrounding them exist in larger structures of inequity. For example: 

• In adulthood, approximately 1 in 5 African American women reported that they had been raped at some point in their lifetime[1]
• Black women face systemic limitations when reporting sexual violence, and engaging with the criminal justice system as victims of crime[2]
• Indigenous women in Canada today are three times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be violently or sexually assaulted[3] 
• First Nations, Inuit, and Metis women and girls are more likely to experience forms of social marginalization, including being targeted for acts of gendered violence: these circumstances mean that Indigenous women “have increased vulnerability to perpetrators and are too often unable to obtain justice when they report sexual assault”[4]
• TransPulse Canada found that physical violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault were all significantly more common experiences of racialized trans and gender nonbinary people compared to non-racialized people: 1 in 3 racialized respondents had been sexually assaulted in the past 5 years[5].

 

While violence is often gendered, racism also continues to devalue the lives of Black, Indigenous and other racialized women, girls and gender diverse people.

 

Sexual violence is linked to colonialism in Canada

Realities of sexual violence today are directly linked to ongoing colonialism in Canada. Historically, women who could evade the sexual impulses of others (including acts of sexual violence) were awarded higher social and political status[6]. This opportunity was not afforded to Black women who faced the daily realities of enslavement and state tolerance of sexual violence[7]. Sexual violence brought by colonialism was also “normalized through the propagation of degrading cultural and sexual myths concerning Indigenous women”[8]. 

These histories have an impact on realities of violence today. For example, nearly 1 in 10 Indigenous women in Canada were victims of a violent crime in 2019[9]. More, while the Canadian criminal justice system’s ability to address sexual violence in Canada is tepid overall[10], its response to racialized and Indigenous people as sexual assault survivors is decidedly poor[11]. 

Because colonialism, racism, violence and sexual violence are so intertwined, it is key that support approaches recognize this and talk about it[12].

 

Black, Indigenous and people of color communities bring important expertise about sexual violence

Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) staffs are often a minority at sexual assault centres and other sexual violence support organizations today. This has an impact on the perspectives that sexual assault centres bring to support, healing and prevention work. 

People with diverse lived experience bring different skills, as well as ways of knowing and being in the world, and strategies for healing. For example, Black, Indigenous and people of color communities bring important expertise about sexual violence and about survivors of violence, such as: 

• The ability to talk about racism, sexism, ageism, ableism and class differences, and how these affect survivors of violence in their day to day lives
• The ability to provide clinical counselling support, while also bringing lived experience of racism, sexism, class or other differences to support practices
• Support practices that go beyond clinical and medically-based therapies, for example:
  • Peer-based counselling
  • Awareness of and skills in traditional healing, wisdom and earth & nature based modalities[13]
  • Awareness of and skills in counselling modalities grounded in the cultural, ethnic and historical authenticity of people of African descent[14]
  • Art-based support

• The ability to talk about resistance and resiliency: that is, the ways that survivors push back against violence, racial inequity and experiences of exclusion
• Understanding systemic violence, colonization and how trauma impacts people’s wellbeing: “trauma is often tied to substance use, mental illness, barriers to healthcare access and employment, being chronically poor, and it can also impact people’s desire to access mainstream health care services”[15], for fear of being stigmatized, surveilled or harmed
• Skills in building alliances in social movements: BIPOC communities and staff are often aware of diverse community supports that are not recognized or known by mainstream helping organizations, yet can be a driving force for healing[16]. These include cultural, grassroots and social groups that provide strength-based support to racialized sexual violence survivors
• Skills in equalizing power between service providers and service-users: participatory approaches between service providers and survivors allow survivors to be active in their own healing[17]
• Lived experience on how systems meant to help can harm people: “medical institutions have a long history of discriminatory treatment of women, First Nations people and other racialized groups, disabled people, and lesbians and gay men”[18] and other marginalized populations

 

Impacts of professionalization on Black, Indigenous and people of color communities

BIPOC people in the sexual violence sector are often conducting challenging sexual violence support work and anti-racist work. Racialized staff share that they have many experiences of systemic racism and oppression within the community-based sexual violence support sector[19]. In addition to this, the expertise that racialized people bring to sexual violence support work is not always recognized. 

BIPOC staff are particularly impacted by sector pressures, such as professionalization. Gender-based violence recovery has long been constructed by the medical field as a problem that is beyond the understanding of the ‘average’ person: for example, sexual abuse and “incest has been unique among issues of violence against women in its instant adoption as a professionals’ issue – an issue of psychiatry and mental health”[20]. Emphasising clinical, medical and ‘professional’ treatments alone has the effect of devaluing other ways of supporting sexual violence recovery: for example, community-based, body-based, peer and social justice approaches to support. 

Professionalization and credentialism – the “drive to professionalize”[21] – contributes to the “undermining and displacement of feminist anti-violence and anti-oppression practice by so-called ‘expert professional’ knowledge” and “evidence-based practices”[22]. It also undermines the experiences of people who have ‘been there’, like survivors of violence, marginalized communities, and communities who have faced harm within systems meant to help people (i.e. the healthcare system, criminal justice system). 

Black, Indigenous and people of color communities in the sexual violence support sector are particularly affected by credentialism and professionalization for many reasons: 

• Employers in all fields admit to credentialism, which disproportionately affects Black job seekers[23] and other people of color
• Racial bias exists in hiring and in recognizing the skills that people of color bring to their work[24]
• Prioritising professional credentials in sexual violence support work diminishes the value of non-clinical skills and knowledges: for example, lived experience of violence, peer-based support, traditional healing, counselling modalities grounded in art, cultural, ethnic and historical knowledges. While many sexual violence support sector staff utilise non-clinical skills and knowledge in their practices, these skills and knowledges are often led by people with lived experiences of violence, people with less formal credentials, and BIPOC folks
• High costs of specialized training create barriers for internationally-educated people[25]. The cost of post-secondary education also creates barrier for racialized and lower-income families[26]
• Education does not necessarily equal more earnings for BIPOC communities. African-origin second-generation women have particularly high levels of education in Canada: over half (57%) of African-origin Black women have a bachelor’s degree or higher, far higher than non-racialized second- and third-generation women in Canada. Even so, Statistics Canada data points out that all Black groups experience earnings gaps compared to their non-racialized counterparts[27]
• Education does not necessarily equal more status or respect for BIPOC individuals. Many BIPOC people have sought formal education and credentials as a way to escape poverty, racism and its impacts. But BIPOC folks pursuing education in women’s sectors, or in class and social justice movements, face the stigma of being perceived as ‘less feminist’ or as upholding capitalist values for pursing these goals
• Licensing pressures (i.e. to gain membership to a regulated professional body such as College of Social Workers or the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario), difficulty in accessing formal education, and not wanting to talk about one’s own lived experiences makes it difficult for BIPOC folks to enter into the sexual violence support profession[28]
• In addition to the above, BIPOC staff often work in grassroots, activist or community settings that may not have the capacity to provide licensing requirements, such as supervision by other specifically-credentialled workers[29]. This creates a barrier for those pursuing the licensing process themselves.

 

Notwithstanding the many skills and knowledge that racialized people bring to sexual violence support work, these contributions are often undermined by forces described here. These realities together reproduce colonial patterns of inequity, white privilege, class privilege and the devaluing of racialized knowledges and internationally-educated staff. Activist Jacqueline Benn-John notes:

“African/Black women working in many professional and credentialed employment spaces – such as government, medicine and healthcare, corporate board rooms, financial institutions, social service organizations, national sports and entertainment or educational institutions – have [still] not earned a seat at the dinner table in their sister’s or their master’s house, despite their extensive, continuous contributions”[30].

  

BIPOC-led work in the sexual violence sector

In recent years, sexual assault in Canada was at its highest since 1996[31]. Yet many support service models for survivors “fail to understand the barriers to mental health services facing BIPOC folks [survivors of violence]. These include: lack of information and education about…services, economic barriers, cultural mistrust, trauma related to historic and ongoing exploitation”[32]. 

Organizational practices to support BIPOC staff in sexual violence support and prevention is key, as is valuing BIPOC-led work in the sexual violence sector and the experiences of BIPOC survivors. We commit to “further the work of racial justice by centring, honouring and uplifting BIPOC leadership, voices, experiences, cultures, traditions and brilliance”[33].

 

If you have a role in policy, finance, human resources, management or program planning at a gender-based violence organization, here is what you can do:

• Commit to hiring BIPOC staff and volunteers at all levels of your organization[34]
• Plan ongoing colonial violence and cultural safety training for your organization, staff and volunteers (remember that anti-racist and anti-oppression work is ongoing, and cannot be addressed through a one-time or short-term training)
• Ensure that your case management or peer debrief meetings discuss and value non-clinical skills and knowledges: for example, lived experience of violence, peer-based support, art-based modalities, traditional healing, wisdom and earth or nature-based modalities, counselling modalities grounded in cultural, ethnic and historical knowledges
• Ensure that your case management or peer debrief meetings talk about the impacts of colonialism and racism on service-users, survivors and organizations
• Share and provide access to online/print resources on anti-oppressive, anti-racist and feminist counselling practices to your team
• Engage wraparound service agencies/agencies you refer to in the community (i.e. social services, health, housing, shelters, income support programs) in anti-racism and anti-oppression work. By doing this, your organization stands up as an ally to BIPOC survivors (and staff). It also encourages institutions to take on anti-racism and anti-oppression work themselves, so that people are no longer exposed to harm within these systems
• Ensure resource allocation for training and capacity-building in anti-racism, anti-colonial and anti-oppression, trauma-informed supportive organizational practices
• Provide opportunities for BIPOC counsellors, staff and volunteers to gather, creating space for these staffs to connect more deeply, flourish, network, heal together and share resources
• Provide opportunities for Indigenous counsellors/staff to make connections with other Indigenous counsellors/staff and share knowledge
• Make efforts to name and resist credentialism at your organization: if a staff is pursuing licensing, consider whether your organization can pay or cost-share on yearly registration
• Make efforts to name and resist the impacts of credentialism on sexual violence services, and on racialized sexual violence survivors
• Ensure your organization has a conflict resolution or accountability process for addressing conflicts and inequities, including racial inequity. Make sure this process is easy to use, has clear timelines and procedures, and includes support to staff facing conflict or inequities[35].

If you work at a gender-based violence organization, here is what you can do:

• Learn about the history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in Canada
• Actively reflect on the biases this has created in you and others, and in the systems we live with today
• Center the knowledge of BIPOC communities, and take action on advocacy identified by BIPOC-led communities, organizations and groups
• Center the knowledge of Indigenous communities, and take action on advocacy identified by Indigenous communities, organizations and groups. The Canadian Association of Midwives shares: “As non-Indigenous people, our tendency is to wait on reports and the findings of federally appointed commissions to validate what Indigenous people already know. While research and evidence-gathering serve a purpose, we should not wait for this to validate the truth that is already known”[36]
• Always engage BIPOC-led communities, organizations and groups in your work: for example, as partners in projects, as speakers and active participants at your community events (i.e. International Women’s Day, Take Back the Night, prevention education events), and as places that your organization refers to
• Always engage in the work of BIPOC communities too: take part in resource sharing with BIPOC groups, organizations and communities in yoyr region; make referral agreements and warm transfers; take part in BIPOC community events (i.e. host a booth at Black History Month event; advertise your organization’s programs in BIPOC media).

 

At OCRCC, we also commit to doing our own work. This includes taking anti-racist and decolonizing approaches to our partnerships, practices and policies; centering all survivors of violence; centering BIPOC voices and knowledge in our work; creating BIPOC-led projects and opportunities; and sharing anti-racist trainings and tools for our members and staff. 

OCRCC’s understandings of sexual violence is rooted in a systemic analysis of violence. Addressing racism and racial inequities are a part of this work.  

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) is a network of 30+ community-based sexual assault centres in Ontario. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, go to https://sexualassaultsupport.ca/get-help/. Many thanks to the OCRCC-BIPOC Counsellors Coalition Building Project and the Fostering a BIPOC community of practice and anti-racist reflexive practices within sexual violence services Project: your input and expertise created this statement.

For more information on this important work, see Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves And Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services.

 

[1] West, Carolyn M. and Kalimah Johnson. March 2013. Sexual Violence in the Lives of African American Women. VAWnet.org and National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women: 3.

[2] See: Cossins, Anne. “Saints, Sluts and Sexual Assault: Rethinking the Relationship Between Sex, Race and Gender.” Social and Legal Studies 12 (1) (2003): 77-103; Pietsch, N. “‘Doing Something’ About ‘Coming Together’: The Surfacing of Intersections of Race, Sex, and Sexual Violence in Victim-Blaming and in the SlutWalk Movement.” This Is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like: Perspectives on the SlutWalk Movement, edited by Alyssa Teekah et al., Demeter Press, Bradford, ON, 2015, pp. 77–91. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1rrd96j.11. Accessed 1 June 2020.

[3] Native Women’s Association of Canada. 2021. NWAC ’s Action Plan to End the A tack Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People. Online: https://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NWAC-action-plan-FULL-ALL-EDITS.pdf. 5. 

[4] Senn, C. The Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance Program: ASSESS, Unit 1: 16.

[5] C. Chih, J. Q. Wilson-Yang, K. Dhaliwal, M. Khatoon, N. Redman, R. Malone, S. Islam, & Y. Persad on behalf of the Trans PULSE Canada Team. Health and well-being among racialized trans and non-binary people in Canada. 2020-11-02. Available from: https://transpulsecanada.ca/research-type/reports: 5.

[6] Solinger, R. Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America. New York: New York University Press, 2005: 52.

[7] Pietsch, N. (2015). “Doing Something” About “Coming Together”: The Surfacing of Intersections of Race, Sex, and Sexual Violence in Victim-Blaming and in the SlutWalk Movement. In Teekah A., Scholz E., Friedman M., & O’Reilly A. (Eds.), This Is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like: Perspectives on the SlutWalk Movement (pp. 77-91). Bradford, ON: Demeter Press.

[8] Nonomura, Robert. (2020). Trafficking at the Intersections: Racism, Colonialism, Sexism, and Exploitation in Canada. Learning Network Brief (36). London, Ontario: Learning Network, Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children. Online: http://www.vawlearningnetwork.ca/our-work/briefs/brief-36.html: 8-9.

[9] Statistics Canada (Samuel Perreault, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics). Release date: July 19, 2022. Victimization of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00012-eng.htm

[10] According to Canadian research, just 33 out of every 1,000 sexual assault cases are reported to the police[10], and just 29 are actually recorded as a crime See: Patel, A. October 30, 2014. for Huffington Post Canada. 460,000 Sexual Assaults In Canada Every Year: YWCA Canada. Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/30/sexual-assault-canada_n_6074994.html

[11] See: Cossins, Anne. “Saints, Sluts and Sexual Assault: Rethinking the Relationship Between Sex, Race and Gender.” Social and Legal Studies 12 (1) (2003): 77-103; Pietsch, N. “‘Doing Something’ About ‘Coming Together’: The Surfacing of Intersections of Race, Sex, and Sexual Violence in Victim-Blaming and in the SlutWalk Movement.” This Is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like: Perspectives on the SlutWalk Movement, edited by Alyssa Teekah et al., Demeter Press, Bradford, ON, 2015, pp. 77–91.

[12] Arczynski, Alexis V. and Morrow, Susan L. The Complexities of Power in Feminist Multicultural Psychotherapy Supervision in University of Utah Journal of Counseling Psychology © 2016 American Psychological Association. 2017, Vol. 64, No. 2, 192–205: 193.

[13] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 34.

[14] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 45.

[15] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 15.

[16] Euale Montilla, N. and Christie Adhikary for BIPOC Feminist Counsellor Coalition Building Project, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2024.

[17] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 17.

[18] Bonisteel, M. and Linda Green.  “Implications of the Shrinking Space for Feminist Anti-violence Advocacy”.  Presented at the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference, Forging Social Futures,Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: 26.

[19] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Colaition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 2.

[20]Bonisteel, M. and Linda Green.  Implications of the Shrinking Space for Feminist Anti-violence Advocacy.  Presented at the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference, Forging Social Futures, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: 27.

[21] Bonisteel, M. and Linda Green.  “Implications of the Shrinking Space for Feminist Anti-violence Advocacy”.  Presented at the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference, Forging Social Futures,Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: 29.

[22] Bonisteel, M. and Linda Green.  “Implications of the Shrinking Space for Feminist Anti-violence Advocacy”.  Presented at the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference, Forging Social Futures,Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: 36.

[23] Woo, L. for the Globe And Mail. February 9, 2021. Rethink your next big hire: Black people face very real bias and unfair standards

[24] Ibid

[25] Cukier, Wendy, PhD and Guang Ying Mo, PhD, Stefan Karajovic, Bincy Wilson, PhD, Jodi-Ann Walker, Kathrine Lee for The Diversity Institute. August 2023. Racialized Canadians and Newcomers: Foundational & Transferable Skills: 29.

[26]See: Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario. n.d. The Racialised Impact Of Tuition Fees Assessing The Social Cost Of Post-Secondary Education 

[27] Wall, Katherine and Shane Wood for Statistics Canada. Release date: August 22, 2023. Insights on Canadian Society: Education and earnings of Canadian-born Black populations

[28] Euale Montilla, N. and Christie Adhikary for BIPOC Feminist Counsellor Coalition Building Project, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2024.

[29] Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. No Social Work Degree Or Non-Accredited Social Work Degree

[30] Benn-John, J., PhD. 2021. (Re)defining Feminist Resistance, Activism and Empowerment in Rape Crisis Centres: Black Women’s Perspectives and Implications for Education. Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto: 119.

[31] Smith, Marie-Danielle for The Canadian Press. August 3, 2022. Sexual assault rate in 2021 highest since 1996, violent crimes up: Statistics Canada. Online: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/sexual-assault-rate-in-2021-highest-since-1996-violent-crimes-up-statistics-canada-1.6010840

[32] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Colaition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 14.

[33] Euale Montilla, N. for Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). 2022. Healing Our Ancestors, Ourselves and Our Communities: A Toolkit to Address Systemic Injustices in Sexual Violence Support Services: 2.

[34] Woo, L. for the Globe And Mail. February 9, 2021. Rethink your next big hire: Black people face very real bias and unfair standards

[35] These recommendations thanks to the OCRCC-BIPOC Counsellors Coalition Building Project and the Fostering a BIPOC community of practice and anti-racist reflexive practices within sexual violence services Project participants; additional guidance and contribution from Euale Montilla, N. and Christie Adhikary for BIPOC Feminist Counsellor Coalition Building Project, Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC), 2024; and J. Benn-John, 2024.

[36] Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM). 2021. Canadian Association of Midwives Statement on Discovery at former Kamloops Residential School. Online: https://canadianmidwives.org/2021/06/15/canadian-association-of-midwives-statement-on-discovery-at-former-kamloops-residential-school/

 

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