Native American Times: Sliver of a Full Moon to be staged for world leaders

Native American Times

NEW YORK – On Sunday, September 21, 2014, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, the National Congress of American Indians, United Methodist Women, Intersections International, Gray Panthers, and the Indian Law Resource Center will present a reading of Sliver of a Full Moon, a powerful play by Cherokee playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle.

Hundreds will gather at the U.N. Chapel on Sunday to witness the New York premiere of Sliver of a Full Moon, including Ambassadors, members of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, White House staff, media, policy analysts, foundations, and non-profits from all over the world. The event will be recorded and streamed live on HowlRound.com.

Sliver of a Full Moon is the story of a movement to restore safety and access to justice to American Indian and Alaska Native women in the United States. It documents the grassroots movement leading up to the historic 2013 re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA 2013”)—an affirmative step forward by the United States towards restoring safety to Native women and sovereignty to Indian tribes to address certain violent crimes by non-Indians on Native lands.

On September 22-23, 2014, the United Nations will hold the first ever World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in New York City to adopt recommendations on indigenous rights and the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

According to Jana Walker, attorney and director of the Indian Law Resource Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project, “the World Conference offers an unprecedented opportunity to raise global awareness and urge the United Nations and international community to combat violence against indigenous women not only in the United States, and particularly in Alaska, but also worldwide. Though violence against women is a pervasive human rights issue, the situation for indigenous women is even more dire.”

Sliver of a Full Moon is specifically being staged alongside the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples to recognize, strengthen, and honor the growing global movement to end this human rights crisis. Millions of indigenous women worldwide suffer disproportionately high and multiple forms of discrimination and violence not only because they are women, but also because they are members of indigenous communities.

The enactment of VAWA 2013 is critical for American Indian and Alaska Native women. “One in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and six in ten will be physically assaulted," said Lucy Simpson, Executive Director of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Inc. Simpson added that, “even worse, on some reservations, the murder rate for Native women is ten times the national average.”

The majority of the perpetrators of violence against Native women are non-native, yet, for over three decades discriminatory United States law stripped all Indian nations of their inherent authority to protect their own women, children, and communities from such violence. In 1978, the Supreme Court declared that American Indian Nations could no longer exercise jurisdiction over non-natives who commit crimes on tribal lands. (Oliphant v. Suquamish, 435 U.S. 191).

VAWA 2013 is a step in the right direction, but in the words of survivor Lisa Brunner, it is only “a sliver of a full moon of what’s needed to really protect us.” Legal gaps remain. VAWA 2013 does not restore tribes’ jurisdiction to prosecute rape and murder. Section 910 of the Act also exempts 228 of the 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska from the new protections. “This exemption is especially devastating,” explains Lenora (Lynn) Hootch, Director of the Yup’ik Women’s Coalition, Board member of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Inc., and Co-Chair of the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women. “Alaska has the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, and the rate of violence against Alaska Native women is more than double that of any other population of women.”

Sliver of a Full Moon’s cast features three courageous Native women who stepped forward to publicly share their stories of abuse by non-Indians and counter staunch opponents to the tribal provisions—Diane Millich (Southern Ute), Lisa Brunner (White Earth Ojibwe), and Billie Jo Rich (Eastern Band Cherokee). Professional actors will join them to portray Congressman Tom Cole, Eastern Band Cherokee Councilwoman Terri Henry, and Tulalip Tribe’s Vice-Chairwoman Deborah Parker. And, for the first time ever, Sliver of a Full Moon will feature the stories of women survivors and advocates from Alaska, including Lenora (Lynn) Hootch, Joann Horn, Priscilla Kameroff, Nettie Warbelow, and Tami Jerue.

September 21, 2014 marks the first ever performance of Sliver of a Full Moon in New York—what many consider to be the country’s “theater capitol.” Director Madeline Sayet explains the significance of this performance on a New York stage: “The continuous representation of essentialized/stereotyped/inauthentic Native bodies on stage as symbols instead of people encourages the mindset that allows violence against Native women to occur. We are not objects of americana whose deaths should be celebrated. We are not an outfit. We are not here to be hunted. We are human beings who should be protected by the law. In Sliver of a Full Moon an all native cast finally has the opportunity to step forward and open the eyes of audiences to the many complex voices of native women and the dangers of exoticizing and dehumanizing identity.”


For more information, visit www.sliverofafullmoon.org. To participate online use #SliverofaFullMoon. Tickets for the evening performance are available for purchase online from Joe’s Pub.

Online: Native American Times