“We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely who and what, and that we are.” – Scott Momaday
This year, the Take Back the Night Committee has decided not to march. This decision was difficult and it was one that catapulted conversations amongst ourselves. Since our first meetings, safety has been a prominent topic at our table. Carefully, we have considered the implications of hosting a march and have written this to explain our decision making process.
SACHA has organized Take Back the Night for 38 monumental years in Hamilton. Over this time, like anything else, change has happened. Not only within the organization but within the tapestry of our society. That’s what makes this yearly event so important. It’s a consistent tradition in Hamilton that celebrates continued community building through food and friendships, and the revelry rooted in reclamation and joy.
We recognize the duality within this celebration and know that we celebrate in spite of the fear. We dance in the face of violence with courage within community. And so it is within community that we recognize that safety means different things for different people. Take Back the Night is a landmark event that has worked towards creating equitable space for the reclamation of autonomy within a system that is structurally violent towards marginalized people.
Structural violence is a term coined by Johan Geltung and it refers to the “avoidable impairment of human needs,” Some examples include: sexism, racism, and poverty. We also recognize that when coupled with direct violence, it can escalate to sexual violence, gendered violence, and hate crimes. The context of our decision is reflective of the reality of structural violence that so many of our attendees face, every day.
On September 4, 2019, the Take Back the Night Committee hosted a “TBTN Community Townhall on Safety” – we wanted to hear right from the community what safety looks like for them. This evening shed light on the complexity of this goal where it was reiterated that safety means different things for different people. Our amazing facilitator, Yamikani, helped to get our group talking about what they needed.
Folks talked about the need for skill sharing (how do we learn to de-escalate, what does conflict transformation look like), as well as topics like accountability and power and privilege. We laughed about memes and made it through challenging conversations, together. The room ranged in gender, race, age and ability. Together, we began to imagine what a better tomorrow could look like.
What was interesting was that no one mentioned the police as a place of safety. Our conversations reflected safety within our communities and how we can create it for ourselves. This heavily impacted our decision because Taking Back the Night is only a joyful revolution when there is an ability to be safe in the determination to create new worlds. “Decolonization is not an individual choice, this takes a collectivity advocating for systemic change,” says Dr. Kim TallBear, an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. What if the collectivity advocated for joy in the constant change of life.
In August 2019, SACHA attended a meeting with city workers, police, HSR, and staff from Councillor Nann’s office. We approached the meeting with intent to continue our march on the same route that is has for decades. To our surprise, it wasn’t an option on the table. Because of feedback and amazing turn out from previous Take Back the Night events, we wanted to close all four lanes. This would enable marchers to take back the night without pushback about space. However, this was deemed impossible because SACHA does not have the funding to pay for the expenses related to a four lane closure.
Instead, there was a proposal for an alternate route that exited the back of City Hall instead. This also included five paid duty officers, two more than last year. SACHA cannot pay police officers to attend Take Back the Night because we are a small non profit organization that relies heavily on grants and fundraising to bring essential services to survivors of violence. Although we received funding from the City for the cost of three officers in past TBTNs. During the meeting, no ideas were put forward about how the extra cost of two more paid duty police officers would be covered.
Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada suggests that “it’s necessary for us to imagine a world where we don’t use armed officers and jails and prisons as solutions to economic problems, health problems, social problems, and mental health issues. We need to rethink the meaning of safety and justice,”
Within this analysis and context, we decided that we would not march in one lane, or on the sidewalk, and we would not march down a nearly invisible route with two extra police officers.
This year, our theme is Joyful Revolution Always – and for us, this means gathering in community to celebrate our creativity, our resilience and our power. Take Back the Night, this year, is hosting spoken word, musical performances, a chill space, collaborations with Disability Justice Network of Ontario and Centre[3]. We’re screenprinting our amazing TBTN image created by Frizz Kid (limited number of totes and tshirts available). There’s also going to be tons of community organizations tabling at the event and a mighty fine playlist curated by our followers on social media!
There are many ways to end sexual violence. This year, we felt that we made the best decision we can. We are so grateful for the survivors that continue to come out to Take Back the Night. Thank you to the Take Back the Night 2019 Committee for your continued hard work to bring this amazing event together. The night has always been ours anyway.