Machea Morgana and Dawn Bear were in La Ronge earlier this week working on the Safe Space Project. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

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AFCS gathering input in La Ronge for Safe Space Strategy

Oct 25, 2023 | 2:00 PM

Representatives of the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan (AFCS) were in La Ronge on Monday to gather input for the Safe Space Strategy.

The Safe Space Strategy is a project where AFCS hopes to increase its ability to prevent and address gender-based violence against Indigenous women, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ people in the province. The Kikinahk Friendship Centre in La Ronge was the final stop for input out of the 10 friendship centres in Saskatchewan.

“We are in the first year of the project,” said program manager Machea Morgana.

“This is when we go out to the communities and have conversations about safety and what safety means. This is to focus on safe spaces for Indigenous women and two-spirit and LGBTQ folks, but when we focus on those populations, it trickles up everywhere. It benefits us all.”

Morgana, along with project coordinator Dawn Bear, are collecting information using the Aboriginal Life Promotion Framework, which is an adaption of the medicine wheel. Morgana explained it’s a way to keep the project Indigenous-led and oriented, as well as to think of safety and safe spaces in a holistic and balanced way.

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“The community and the staff at the friendship centres, they know what they need for safety and for safe spaces,” she said.

“The idea for the project and the way the AFCS operates, is power to the community. They know what they want and they know what they need, and we need to put that on paper so we can learn from each other. There are many wheels rolling already and solutions to create safe spaces.”

The goals for the project are to develop awareness campaigns and development workshops, as well as capacity building in topics of gender-based violence prevention and education. A final document will also be prepared and delivered to communities to be used as a guide to support friendship centres in having an environment that is holistically safe and welcoming for all.

“Hopefully, in the spring or early summer, we are hoping to present this back to the community because it is also about the information is not ours, it’s of the community’s,” Morgana said. “So, we want to make sure throughout the process of the writing it comes back and forth to the community to be re-evaluated if needed.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com