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My Sister’s Keeper Walk: The Walk to End the Violence, Murder, and Trafficking of Women of Color

In support of MMIWG National Awareness Day & Week of Action Walk

from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Alaska

May 1, 2023, to May 5, 2023

PHOENIX, AZ – Respect Our Daughters is excited to announce partnering with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) Alaska Working Group for an awareness walk. In support of MMIWG National Awareness Day & Week of Action (May 1st - May 5th) Frantz Beasley, President of Respect Our Daughters, will begin a walk from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Alaska to continue to raise awareness to the violence, murder, and trafficking of women of color. The walk will join efforts with local advocates, community partners, state agencies, and law enforcement to support their on-going advocacy throughout Alaska.

By working together, we can find where the gaps exist, discover solutions, raise funding for those organizations and families on the front lines who work tirelessly for justice, and fight against this disgusting reality which takes place in our communities to our women of color. Our hope is to spread awareness and education to strengthen the connection with survivors, families of the missing and murdered, so that law enforcement agencies, community organizations, activists, and policymakers take action.

In previous work, Respect our Daughter’s team completed the action walk in September 2022 from Los Angeles, CA to the Statue of Liberty, and also completed the Not For Sale Walk; a 500 mile walk to raise awareness for women of color during human trafficking prevention month in February 2023. Respect our Daughter’s facilitated meetings with survivors, families of the missing and murdered, local, state, federal leaders, and agencies to learn about the complex factors that contribute to these issues in their communities. They advocated for the development of strategies for collaborative efforts to identify gaps and barriers to find viable and sustainable prevention efforts to increase protective factors. 

We want to share a special thanks to the MMIWG2S Alaska Working Group for their invitation and support in connecting and coordinating efforts to work with communities, local organizations, state agencies, and law enforcement. MMIWG2S Alaska is an Indigenous-led working group supported by the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, Alaska Native Heritage Center, Alaska Native Justice Center, Native Movement, and Data for Indigenous Justice. They address the crisis of Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit persons from a healing perspective within their communities and demand justice from a state, local, and federal level. For more information on the working group please go to: https://www.facebook.com/MMIWG2SAlaska. To read the first Alaska-specific MMIWG2S report, please go to: https://dataforindigenousjustice.com/we-are-calling-to-you/. 

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We are grateful for the community to come together, and give our gratitude to our hosts in Alaska, community partners, and Fairbanks and Anchorage Police Departments for their partnership and support. This has been a wonderful opportunity to partner with organizations and agencies that meaningfully align with the purpose of the My Sister’s Keeper Walk.

We are excited to invite everyone to join us for the walk, and Week in Action events to support the purpose of this movement that is addressing a crisis hiding in plain sight in our communities. Details about the walk and the events will be updated on the Respect Our Daughters website or the MMIWG2s Alaska Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MMIWG2SAlaska.

For more information and to support the My Sister’s Keeper Walk: MMIWG Week of Action, please visit www.respectourdaughters.org/weekofaction. If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact Nicole Valenzuela via phone at 602-914-9000 or via email at respectourdaughters@gmail.com.