In the summer of 2011, No More Silence invited the Native Youth Sexual Network to participate in an event entitled The Silence is Broken, but the Violence Continues: Now What? to create community discussions about moving beyond awareness raising to actually strategizing about how to end violence.
Community members came together initially from Toronto, then with the support of funds from the Community Knowledge Alliance of the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto No More Silence was able to invite FSIS and other activists working with family members in Vancouver’s downtown eastside and other regions to join the discussion. The decision to create a community-led database was born at our April Violence No More Meeting in 2013. Subsequently No More Silence approached FSIS and together met with Indigenous researcher, Dr. Janet Smylie who had offered her assistance in developing the criteria. Together with community partner, NYSHN, the database was launched in the fall of 2013. In the summer of 2014 we were able to launch this website including our first tribute page in honour of Bella Laboucan-Mclean. So over the last 3-4 years people have been brought together in conversation, in the spirit of collaboration and understanding that no one can own this work.
We hope to be as transparent as possible – gathering information directly from family members who are open and consent to sharing, by searching and collaborating with existing regional lists created by community members who give consent to share their work, as well as digging through media reports and anecdotal evidence.
