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Aug. 30, 2023
Old Tricks, New Tricks & The Same Tricks
There is no issue where the distance between the idea - and the lived reality - is as far apart as in prostitution. The discourse about prostitution often takes place miles away from the thing itself, and is had by people far removed from the violenc...
There is no issue where the distance between the idea - and the lived reality - is as far apart as in prostitution. The discourse about prostitution often takes place miles away from the thing itself, and is had by people far removed from the violence and trauma of prostitution. The voices of survivors of prostitution are rarely heard because their lives are inevitably impacted by the violence and trauma of prostitution.
Our guest Cherry Smiley, an Indigenous feminist researcher, activist and author wanted to bridge this gap, and set out on an academic research project on the subject of prostitution - in the hopes that by shedding light on the lived realities of Indigenous women and girls in prostitution, she would shift people’s thinking about what prostitution actually is. She then wrote a book about her arduous PhD journey and her evolving insights called Not Sacred, Not Squaws: Indigenous Feminism Redefined.
In this episode we talk to Cherry about putting her whole academic career on the line taking on the ‘sex work is work’ creed, the courage it took to bring her life experience as an Indigenous feminist woman to bear on her research project, and the cost of speaking up against the things manstitutions hold sacred.
Credits
Host: Elle Kamihira
Produced by Elle Kamihira
Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio
Cover Art by Bee Johnson
Music by Beware of Darkness
Cherry Smiley
Researcher, Author & Activist
From the Nlaka'pamux and Diné Nations, Cherry Smiley is an Indigenous feminist activist, researcher, and author of Not Sacred, Not Squaws: Indigenous Feminism Redefined.
Cherry holds a PhD in communications studies from Concordia University in Montreal, and her research is grounded in the material realities of women’s lives, in the work and goals of the women’s liberation movement, and in her experiences as a front-line anti-violence worker in a rape crisis centre and transition house for battered women and their children. Cherry’s areas of study include historical and contemporary strategies of the women’s liberation movement to end male violence against women and girls, impacts of colonization on Indigenous women, feminist theory, historical women’s studies and present-day gender studies in Canadian universities, and prostitution.
She has worked as a project manager in the area of violence prevention and safety for a national Native women's organization, and is a founding member of Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry (IWASI) and is honored to have been invited to speak at conferences, events, and rallies in locations such as Prince Rupert, Toronto, New York City, London, and Tromsø.
Cherry graduated with a master of fine arts degree from Simon Fraser University, exhibiting her photo-text installation, Revolution Songs: Stories of Prostitution. She has also exhibited artwork in locations such as Vancouver BC, Kamloops BC, and London, England. Cherry’s writing has been published in the Globe & Mail, Policy Options, Feminist C… Read More