MISSION — Looking back and moving forward framed the message at the 25th annual Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM).

Family Violence Services in the Public Safety Department held a walk and lunch on April 23 at Nixyáawii Governance Center (NGC), culminating a series of events centered around reflection and progress.

Along the route, stations focused on youth education regarding sexual violence. Participants discussed when young people should learn about healthy relationships.

Family Violence Services Sexual Assault Specialist Maggie Steerman said the history of Sexual Assault Awareness started with grassroots operations in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles called “Take Back the Night”.

“The height of when sexual assault would happen was at night, especially if (women of color) were walking alone, even in the city underneath lights, that’s when it was most dangerous for them,” Steerman said. “They started organizing just to take back ownership over their experience and their lives, and to bring light to how pervasive the issue is.”

Steerman said having this year’s SAAM theme be “25 years, looking back and moving forward” honors all of the progress made regarding sexual assault and recognizes that there’s still more progress.

“We’ve done a lot of great things, but there’s still more work to do,” she said. “Especially with our culture, I think there’s been a lot of great movement and progress around laws so that we can actually hold people accountable for crimes they commit against other people.”

Steerman teaches a Leadership Against Violence class at Nixyáawii Community School, where students have spent the past several months discussing intimate relationships and distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

“The past couple of weeks that we’ve had class, we’ve been talking a lot about consent, what it looks like and what it’s not. We walk through a lot of different scenarios,” she said.

Two students in the class helped run a station along the walk.

With the month’s theme centered on looking back and moving forward, Family Violence Services Program Manager Desireé Coyote said that, while progress has been made in addressing sexual violence, there is still more to do.

“We need to be more engaging with the community at their level. We’re not quite where I want us to be yet, but we’re getting there,” Coyote said.

Coyote pointed to progress in how sexual assault cases are approached, with less focus placed on victims.

“Maybe a bit more than five years ago, we were looking at moving away from always pointing at the victim,” she said. “We don’t see anything pointed toward education of young men or dads saying, ‘This is how you teach your young boy not to belittle women or girls,’ or, ‘This is how you stand up to a man who’s being sexist to a woman in public, or anywhere else.’”

Steerman said that over the next year, the program hopes to implement at least one recommendation from a Sexual Assault in the Community survey released in 2023. The survey, which was taken pre-COVID, addresses the high incidence of sexual assault within the tribal community and the barriers to services, justice and healing that victims encounter.

Recommendations listed in the survey include developing trust through community outreach, transparency in actions addressing sexual violence and building relationships with local law enforcement.

The program also called for increased awareness through youth-focused education and outreach campaigns, healing through culturally relevant practices, the introduction of support groups, expanded access to mental health services trained to meet survivors’ needs, and community-led initiatives and a five-year action plan.

“It’s more around meaningful awareness around sexual assault, especially child sexual assault, because a lot of community members opened up about their own experiences and how it’s pushed under the rug a lot,” Steerman said.

While there’s still progress to be made, Coyote said it was good that sexual violence is being spoken about more.

“Before, everybody was all about, ‘Women shouldn’t do this, women shouldn’t do that.’ Nowadays, they’re starting to talk more about what men do or shouldn’t do,” Coyote said.

Men are more often the assaulter, but it does not mean they are the sole offenders, she noted.

As SAAM marked 25 years of national recognition, Coyote looked ahead to what she hopes to see in the future.

“I think, for our future, we should be able to — young and old — not just be happy and safe no matter what time of day or night or environment we’re in, to know that no one will harm us,” Coyote said. “We shouldn’t have to worry about our teens and young kids being groomed online or at home. We shouldn’t have to see 14-year-old girls pregnant by someone in their twenties. It should not be normal.”