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International Women’s Day a bit more complicated this year

By Tammy Ayer, Yakima Herald-Republic
Published: March 8, 2017, 9:15am

YAKIMA — HollyAnna CougarTracks DeCoteau Littlebull will wear red to work today — and not just because she just feels like wearing that color on a Wednesday.

More people may wear red on Wednesday. Stores may have fewer customers. Workplaces may have more empty desks.

Wednesday is International Women’s Day — a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, according to www.internationalwomensday.com. The U.N.-designated event also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

It’s not new. But it’s different this year.

This International Women’s Day has also been deemed by Women’s March organizers as A Day Without a Woman, described as “a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity” to “recognize the enormous value that women of all backgrounds add to our socio-?economic system — while receiving lower wages and experiencing greater inequities, vulnerability to discrimination, sexual harassment and job insecurity.”

They are urging women to take the day off from paid and unpaid labor, avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses) and wear red in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman.

The International Women’s Strike also is Wednesday. It stems from a grass-roots movement of the same name created in October 2016 as a response to the current social, legal, political, moral and verbal violence experienced by contemporary women worldwide, it notes at www.womenstrikeus.org.

Littlebull, who is strategic planning coordinator at Yakama Nation Justice Services, will be working Wednesday. But she wanted to wear red to show solidarity, among other reasons.

“Basically, it’s not so much … for myself. It’s more for women in general,” Littlebull said. She’s also celebrating her individuality as a Native American woman.

“By participating (Wednesday), I’m also actively voicing our culture and, yes, I’m a woman and, yes, I’m different,” she said. “I’m also voicing tradition.”

“I’m not saying I want to be equal with men on everything, because that would diminish my cultural rights,” she added.

In Seattle, where several friends will also participate, Native Women in Need — an advocacy and mentorship organization serving Native American women — will officially change its name to Mother Nation.

As part of the celebration at Seattle University’s Student Center, Grammy-winning recording artist Star Nayea, a member of the Ojibwe Anishinabek Nation, will perform some of her original songs.

“I grew up not only here in the Yakima Valley but also in Seattle while (my parents were) going to college. A lot of those people I’m still extremely connected to,” Littlebull noted.

Four friends of her parents — Bernie Whitebear, Bob Santos, Roberto Maestas and Larry Gossett — inspired her to make a difference, she said. And working with former Cherokee Nation Chief Wilma Mankiller taught her that being a leader in the community “is not about you,” Littlebull said.

“It is what is best for the future, for the people as a whole,” she added.

Besides Seattle, related events will take place in several cities and campuses, the International Women’s Strike website notes.

Today’s events come on the heels of the Women’s March on Jan. 21, which drew an estimated 5 million participants worldwide, and the Day Without Immigrants on Feb. 16.

On Jan. 21 in Yakima, marchers walked from ?City Hall, along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and south to Yakima Avenue. The march ended at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Second Street, where participants gathered for a networking event ?that organizers said was intended to inspire future action.

Hundreds of marchers made up the crowd, which at one point stretched over three blocks. Observers estimated that between 700 and more than 1,000 people took part.

Littlebull was there.

“My uncle, Victor Watlamet, told me when I was a kid if you don’t like how something is and you do nothing to change it for the better, you get what you deserve,” she said.

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