The Take Back the Night rally Thursday had over 50 people march through the streets of Guelph in solidarity of women and gender diverse folks who have experienced violence.
The night kicked off at Marianne’s Park with drumming, speakers, whistles and sign making all organized by Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
“We really need to take extra care of ourselves so that we can continue to thrive, and to resist systems and groups that would prefer us not to be thriving at all,” said Cindy McMann, public educator Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
The theme for this year’s walk was “lead where you are” a quote from Liz Agbhor-Tobi, the vice-president of global policy for Global Citizen.
“And that seemed like a really timely reminder to us because we have been waiting on some things that would be deeply helpful for survivors. And this year, there's been a lot of political refusal to lend that support,” said McMann.
McMann referenced the provincial government voting down Bill 5 the Stopping Harassment and Abuse by Local Leaders Act which would have allowed municipalities to remove municipal officials from power if they had committed harassment of sexual violence.
She also referenced the refusal of the federal government and the Manitoba government to search the landfill to find the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.
McMann said we need leadership from the ground since our systemic response to gender based violence has been ‘collectively underwhelming.’
“I think we got a solid glimpse of that yesterday in Guelph, and in communities across the country as people rallied to protect the rights of trans youth. I spent the morning at the protest in Guelph. And to me, while I was there, leading where you are looked like people creating a circle of care and safety around a young person who's being heckled by haters. It looked like people holding the line with their bodies to stop transphobic protesters from reaching speakers and trying to intimidate them.
“It looked like a lot of rainbow flags, and it looked like incredible signs and some extremely good wardrobe choices. It looked like song and dancing and joy and love and community care. It looked very much like the future I want, diverse and united against violence, grounded in compassion and connection and moved by a sense of political clarity that drowned out hatred like a tide. That clarity was very simple. And the message was very simple. Everybody has the right to live a life free of violence, full stop.”
Nealob Kakar, speaker and queer Afghan community-based researcher shared a poem called A Five Step Guide on How to Crochet for Beginners. The poem describes her upbringing as an Afghan queer woman in her journey of survivorship through her community and she used the metaphor of crochet to string the story along.
“I gave until I frayed. I gave until I split. I gave until I pilled. But if there's one lesson I'm going to teach you is that we weren't made to crochet chains when our foundations have gone astray. And no, I don't mean I have gone astray,” she read.
Kakar described the theme of the night. “For me to lead where I am, it's to stop sweeping under the rug, it's to reclaim multi-generational healing for myself, for my family, for my future generations. Leading where you are means keeping each other safe,” she said.
When Mandi Gray, activist, and academic at Trent University was asked to speak at Take Back the Night, she said her answer was an immediate yes.
The first Take Back the Night Gray attended was in 2006 when she was 18-years-old. This was “before I found feminism before I had a political understanding of the violence I had experienced in my life,” she said.
It gave her a better understanding of how and why violence occurs and “none of us are to blame for what other people's actions are,” she said.
“We heard all of the injustices that we have witnessed to women, girls, trans, Two-Spirit, gender diverse and queer people, racialized, Indigenous folks over the last few, I mean, centuries, really. But it's been particularly pronounced, and I know it can feel very often that it's an insurmountable obstacle, but look around and see the strength we have here. And the resistance that we all have to these structures of power that are trying to break us but haven't broke us yet. We're still here,” Gray said to the crowd.
