Healing Native Hearts Coalition Interviewee: Shirley Moses, Director 1. How did this work come about? And why was it necessary? We applied for the “Thriving Women’s Initiative, Alaska grant. There are a lot of murdered and missing Native women in Alaska which is a really big concern. There are a lot of cold cases that need to be reopened, and because of the lack of investigation, this doesn’t happen. For those still missing there is no closure for the families or community. This contributes to ongoing trauma. In some instances, those that have murdered or committed a crime against a Native woman will also plea bargain their way to a lesser charge and be out of prison in a shorter amount of time. With our women, it could be years before the crime committed against them is solved, if it is ever solved. Our work is necessary to raise awareness and honor missing women. We were showing a video related to violence and it opened up this can of worms; we didn’t realize how it would impact others and that this would lead to so much more in the development of our work. 2. To accomplish your work, how does your project draw upon the best of the what has been or is in your organization and community? We have strong women in our communities and we draw upon the strengths and resilience of women to help guide what we do. Women have been through a lot and have a lot of knowledge. There are also others who are sincere and want to help out and we depend on them too. There are a lot of talented, giving people who support what we are doing. Many of them end up volunteering to help however they can. 3. (a) Why did you get involved and what makes you stay? (b) What is
important about what you do and what do you love most about the work? Growing up I saw a lot of violence and I knew how important it was to address it. Women in our communities were not being helped which was a big concern. The systems that 82
