TELLING THE STORY OF NATIVE WOMEN’S FIGHT FOR BODY AUTONOMY

In 2022, we moved quickly to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson, which eliminated the constitutional protection for abortion originally established in Roe v. Wade almost 50 years prior. Indigenous women’s voices have historically been erased from the national reproductive justice debate, and that remained the case in the aftermath of this Supreme Court decision.
To bring attention to the disproportionate impact on Native communities and uplift the voices of Native women and peoples in the national conversation, IllumiNative turned to earned and digital media. IllumiNative CEO and Founder Crystal Echo Hawk penned a powerful op-ed, “Women’s Bodies Are No Longer Their Own. For Native People, They Never Have Been,” for Elle Magazine, which was also picked up by CNN, USA Today, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other local and statewide media outlets. We also commissioned four Native women-identified artists to tell the story of Native women’s fight for body autonomy and reproductive justice.

Credit: Jackie Fawn (Yurok, Washoe, and Surigaonon)

These efforts reached an estimated combined audience of more than 825 million people.

Credit: Paige Pettibon (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes)

Credit: Aly McKnight (Shoshone-Bannock Tribes)

Credit: Steph Littlebird (Chinook & Kalapuya)

RESOURCES

WOMEN’S BODIES ARE NO LONGER THEIR OWN. FOR NATIVE PEOPLE, THEY NEVER HAVE BEEN.

IllumiNative CEO and Founder Crystal Echo Hawk writes in this op-ed about the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe and how it will impact Native communities—plus how we can help dismantle the invisibility, erasure, and toxic stereotypes that impact Native peoples today.