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Acknowledgments: Logo Design by / Website design by Lukas Labacher & RG
More Than Words & Pathways2Equity
Projects Supported by The Department for Women and Gender Equality Canada
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More Than Words (MTW) & Pathways2Equity (P2E)
This site reflects the work of Indigenous young people and adult allies who are addressing gender inequality and gender-based violence through two Women & Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) supported projects; More Than Words (MTW) & Pathways2Equity (P2E).
This work builds on the SSHRC-IDRC Partnership: Networks for Change and Well-being: Girl-led ‘from the ground up’ policymaking to address sexual violence in Canada and South Africa.
Networks for Change laid the foundation for collaboration and successful partnering over the last seven years through skills and capacity building with Indigenous young people to support their response to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in their own communities through arts-based approaches.
More Than Words (MTW)
MTW is a 4-year project (2019-2023) which is part of WAGE’s national $50 million Gender-Based Violence program:
Promising Practices to Support Survivors and their Families
MTW learns from the use of Indigenous-focused youth-led survivor engagement through the arts, looking at impacts on the producers themselves (young people) and on their families and communities in relation to their experiences of SGBV. The title of the project symbolizes action (not just words), and also refers to the significance of images and art as critical entry points to reflection and meaning-making.
MTW supports a generation of youth leaders who have already participated in Networks for Change as they mentor (or become aunties to) a new generation of youth and become equality advocates within their communities. Youth and their allies are developing a trail of promising practices to support the uptake of similar work in more communities.
By consulting with community organizations and advocates across Canada, a network of young people, practitioners, and researchers is growing to champion youth-led arts-based approaches and storytelling to address SGBV.
Pathways2Equity (P2E)
Our circle further expands with the work of P2E:
Youth-led, Indigenous-Focused, Gender-Transformative, Arts-Based Approaches to Challenging Gender Norms in Addressing GBV (2021-2023).
This expansion responds to the calls from Indigenous girls and young women, in all their diversity, to include boys and young men in gender-based violence (GBV) prevention.
P2E is a girl-informed project, focusing on work with Indigenous boys and young men in communities across Canada. Now more than ever there is a recognition of the importance of working with boys and young men in separate and non-threatening, yet inclusive and integrated ways to address SGBV. The leadership of Indigenous girls and young women critically informs and frames the engagement of Indigenous boys and young men in participatory and creative ways.
Specific objectives of the project include: fostering leadership with Indigenous girls and young women, engaging Indigenous boys and young men in ending GBV, creating local and culturally relevant dialogues and knowledge-sharing around the root causes of gender inequality and violence. Indigenous youth are supported in establishing a Pathways2Equity Youth Framework based on local and national engagement and promising practices.
