Women Who Choose to Live is organizing “40 for 30,” seeking 40 people who will send $30 a month for 6 months (less than the price of a daily coffee) to support wrongfully charged Indigenous writer Dawn Walker, who is forcibly separated from her child unless she can pay $1,200 a month for colonial "supervision" costs.  Even though Dawn had proposed three widely respected Indigenous individuals and groups to conduct the supervision without cost, all were rejected by the colonial court.

Now she must pay $1,200 a month to maintain even limited connection with her child at a time when the colonial government says that forcible separation of Indigenous kids from their moms (a genocidal process on which this country was built) should never happen again (even though it happens all the time). We are asking that folks commit to six months of support.

To be one of the "40 for 30" please email Women Who Choose to Live tasc@web.ca

Background
Dawn is also fighting a massive pile-on of bogus colonial charges which could result in decades in prison, all for the alleged crime of trying to protect herself and her child from abuse when no one would help.
 
Every year, thousands of Indigenous children are separated from their parents, their communities and their culture by the child welfare system that, as CTV reports, "in many ways, continues the cycle of colonial violence."

One of those kids is the child of wrongfully charged, award-winning Okanese First Nations writer Dawn Walker, who faces decades in prison for the alleged “crime” of trying to protect her child from abuse. According to court filings, Dawn “fled Saskatchewan due to her honest belief that her child faced grievous imminent harm. Their flight to the United States was Ms. Walker’s final, most desperate attempt in a long series of fruitless bids to seek protection from the authorities from her ex-partner’s ongoing sexual abuse and harm.”

For the act of trying to save her child, the colonial government of Saskatchewan has forcibly separated Dawn from her child, and will only allow occasional “supervised” visits that cost Dawn $1,200 a month. This is how the colonial system treats an Indigenous mother who is, by the system’s own rules, presumed innocent.

It is preposterous in the so-called Truth and Reconciliation era – where politicians continually spout "never again” platitudes – that Dawn’s ability to share time with and nurture her child is dependent on her ability to pay for colonial child supervision services.

As Dawn endures the lengthy wait to contest the bogus colonial charges, she needs our support to pay for those supervised visits and maintain an essential connection with her child.

Women Who Choose to Live is organizing “40 for 30,” seeking 40 people who will publicly, proudly commit to send $30 a month (less than the price of a daily coffee) to meet those costs. We are asking that folks commit to six months of support.

To join the 40 for 30 campaign, contact Women Who Choose to Live at tasc@web.ca

More at http://womenwhochoosetolive.blogspot.com/2023/04/40-for-30-support-fund-to-help.html

""We are supervised for every second of every visit but we do a good job of playing games, eating snacks and cuddling even under this scrutiny," Dawn writes. "At the end of the visit, my child always stops before letting himself be escorted away - he will step back in the doorway to look up at my face to make sure that I'm not crying. As little as he is, he is trying to look after me. I have trained myself to only cry after I hear his footsteps down the hall.” – Dawn Walker