“If my body is a temple, then you must be an atheist.”
Spoken word poet and Carleton University second-year criminology student Namitha Rathinappillai’s words echoed in the Museum of Nature as an audience of over one hundred people snapped their fingers in unison.
The event attracted more than twice as many people as the last Survivors Speak event in November.
A host of nationally acclaimed activists and Carleton students spoke and performed poetry in the Canadian Museum of Nature for the second Survivors Speak event of the year.
Featured speakers included Heather Jarvis, the co-founder of the international SlutWalk movement, and Meera Vijayann, an international journalist covering sexual violence.
Safina Vesuna, the administrative coordinator of the CUSA Womxn’s Centre, said the event’s roster of speakers all brought different experiences of sexual assault.
“[Sexual violence] is a systemic issue around the globe,” she said. “In supporting survivors on campus and in the local community, we are also creating a space for and changing how people perceive survivors.” Taylor Arnt, a third-year public affairs and policy management student, shared her own experience as a survivor who is cur- rently involved in the consultations on Carleton’s sexual violence policy.
She said Survivors Speak empowered survivors to take on the daily struggles of navigating the world.
“There are all sorts of triggering events and things that occur on a daily basis,” she said. “We need spaces like this where we can build ourselves up enough to be brave and face the world when it’s not accommodating for us.”
Farrah Khan, the final featured speaker and an advocate working to address gender-based violence, discussed the importance of recognizing voices too often left out of the conversation.
“When I think about a movement that I’m a part of, I think about the lack of support for some folks in this movement, how some folks get left behind,” she said.
Khan also spoke about the importance of remembering joy and pleasure while grappling with heavy topics.
“When we talk about sexual violence, people’s bodies get so tense,” she said. “[This event shows that] you can have joy and healing, and that healing includes pleasure and happiness and connection.”
The Womxn’s Centre also collaborated with the Carleton Art History Undergraduate Society to present an art exhibit featuring paintings and artwork created by survivors.
“[The exhibit] speaks to the common- ness of this theme of surviving and being enduring after sexual violence,” Vesuna said.
She added that visual art allowed survivors to share their trauma in ways other than performance.
Woojae Sung, a third-year student, said the event created a conversation around an overlooked topic.
“Providing a platform for people to speak in a safe atmosphere is important,” he said. ”For any community to be a community, you need to have people talking.”
Bella Grandin, a second-year journalism student, said she appreciated the event’s inclusivity.
“A lot of events in general are run primarily by cis white women,” she said. “People of colour or people that are gender-diverse, non-binary, or trans, their voices are often not heard.”
She added that the event helped her navigate her own experience as a survivor and inspired her to share her experience unapologetically.
“In the past, I’ve been ashamed or embarrassed of [my experience] and I didn’t want people to feel uncomfortable or be pitiful towards me,” she said.
“It’s important for me to speak and to share my experiences, because it can empower and inspire someone else—just as these women who have spoken have empowered me.”
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Photo by Tobin Ng
