Sisters in Spirit 2011: Aboriginal Sex Worker Education Outreach Project

Maurganne Mooney of the Aboriginal Sex Workers Outreach and Education Project (ASWEOP) of Maggie's: Toronto Sex Workers Action project, speaking at the 2011 Sisters in Spirit Vigil, organized by the Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto.

Standing beside her is Monica Forrester, co-coordinator of ASWEOP.

Thank you the Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto for inviting Maggie's to participate.

Maggie's: The Toronto Sex Workers Action Project is an organization run for and by local sex workers. Our mission is to assist sex workers in our efforts to live and work with safety and dignity. We are founded on the belief that in order to improve our circumstances, sex workers must control our own lives and destinies.

find us at Maggiestoronto.ca and facebook.com/maggiestoronto

First up, my spirit name is Mnido Giizis Ogichidaa: A Moon Spirit Guardian.

And one of my fasts, I was given a message

that there's too many of our women's hearts on the ground.

and the death of a nation is when our women's hearts are on the ground.

And that shortly after that fast, I ended up speaking in the parliament of Canada,

debating the laws on sex work.

And I was in a room filled with politicians and lawyers

and everybody with fancy pieces of paper,

and I was there with my eagle feather.

And I was talking about

how 500 women to us,

is equivalent to 25,000 women in any other community.

If another community lost 25,000 women,

I'm sure people would be up in arms.

They would be organizing.

They would not sit down and live in silence.

Um, at Maggie's, our project is the first of its kind in our country.

And this is years after the Stolen Sisters report.

I want to acknowledge that 60% of the women found on the pig farm

were First Nations women.

That their families had to lobby the police to investigate their crimes.

Sex workers are mothers,

they're fathers,

they're brothers and sisters,

they're Two Spirit,

they have other things,

other than being a sex worker.

Sex work is their job.

It's not OK to kill a sex worker.

It's not OK to kill an Aboriginal woman

or Two spirited person.

Um, this is a drum we made at Maggie's,

it's the first time we did drum-making at Maggie's.

What we're trying to do with the project

is we're trying to open the circle

so that we can include people in our community

that don't feel part of our community;

so that we can take them out of isolation and include them in our circle.

So we're doing that by including them in the sex work community,

but also reaching out to community organizations

so that they can participate in community organizing,

and be OK with saying "Hi, I'm a sex worker".

Um, shame lives in silence.

That's been my experience.

If you wanna get rid of shame,

we have to start talking.

You know?

And it's, this is the remnants possibly of colonialism,

where we don't talk about sex,

let alone sex for money.

So I'm gonna end my speak by acknowledging the spirits that have gone on,

our mothers, the mothers, the daughters, the aunties.

That it wasn't because they were a sex worker

that they deserved to die.

They did not deserve to die.

They needed to be honoured,

they needed to be cherished,

they needed to be included in the circle.

So I'm going to sing a song,

the Seven Grandfather Teaching Song

on the drum that was made in our sex worker organization,

for the people who couldn't come here today

and speak to you about their stories and say "hi, I'm a sex worker".

And I'm hoping that it can, we can meet people where they are

instead of waiting til they're healed enough to be in a sweatlodge, or community circles,

and then maybe we won't have so many vigils.

[Song begins]

[others join singing]

[song ends with cheers]

Oh, thank you so much for that gift, Maurganne, that was beautiful.