Speakers: Jennifer Young Bull Bear; Ruth Cedar Face
Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains offers their program members opportunities for a Sexual Assault Survivors Retreat to provide Native women a chance to take back their femininity and sacredness after sexual violence. Cultural healing is key in this process as ancestral knowledge provides the women with the ability to regain their roles as sacred. Sexual trauma workbooks and cultural activities are used as a guide to recovery with teachings from mind, body, medicine practices and cultural teachings and activities that belong to the female energy. They can begin the process of healing physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and regain their power and roles. Traditional medicines are provided to assist them in their healing. The end segment is a Lakota cultural healing ceremony by elders to help survivors let go of the pain they endured.