0:00:00.8 Sally Laskey: Welcome to Resource on the Go, a podcast from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center on understanding, responding to, and preventing sexual abuse and assault. I'm Sally Laskey, NSVRC's evaluation coordinator. This is part three of a three-part series on what an intersectional approach to data collection, analysis, and use can look like. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Kiora Matthews. Kiora is a descendant from the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. She was a member of the Youth Participatory Action Research Team of the Minnesota Youth Sex Trading Project in 2023. This project was funded through the University of Minnesota and gathered data from the Minnesota Student Survey.

0:00:47.2 SL: After collecting all the data, they released an infographic on the topic. And since the release of the infographic, Kiora has publicly spoken nationwide on it at various events and helped share this knowledge through social media. She is a dedicated youth leadership activist committed to creating meaningful change within communities of color.

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0:01:28.5 SL: Welcome to Resource on the Go. I would love it if you could let our listeners know a little bit more about you.

0:01:39.1 Kiora Matthews: I'm Kiora Matthews. I am 20 years old and I have done a lot of different activism things the past few years. Well, for a while now, I would like to say. But recently, last year, I was a part of the Youth Participatory Action Research Team and we published an infographic about it. So for the past year, so I've kind of just been going around and talking about it and sharing the information with different organizations and youth groups. And yeah, it's kind of what I've been up to.

0:02:17.7 SL: Could you share your experiences for folks about how you got involved with the Minnesota Youth Sex Trading Project? 

0:02:27.1 KM: My mom was somebody who was kind of involved with the program before they even let the application out to youth. And so she's actually the one that told me about it. My mom, Nicole Matthews, she is the director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and they're also a national TA provider. So they kind of drill around and know a lot of people nationally. And so that's kind of how I learned about it and got into it. But yeah.

0:02:56.1 SL: That's awesome. And for our listeners, Nicole is a longtime collaborator of ours and really, really appreciate all of the connections that we're able to make. And we'll make sure to include information about that TA project in our show notes for folks if they're not aware. So great. So your mom was talking to you about this project and you saw it. And what kind of came up in your mind? Why did you say, "Oh, this is something I definitely wanna get more involved in?"

0:03:35.5 KM: Well, the project was very Native student based on exactly Native plus students. And when I say Native plus, it's a term that's used to include both like Alaska Native and Island Pacificer, but also anybody that identifies as Indigenous and is also two-spirit, transgender, anything. It's kind of like that big plethora of what it means to be an Indigenous person. And so it's kind of like a newer term, but that's what I'll be referring to a lot when I'm talking about the research. But I personally am tied to it since I am Native American.

0:04:22.0 KM: But also I have done a lot of my activism work within the Native American community. And so it was something I was already familiar with. And I think there's not a lot of research that's being done around Native plus students and things that are happening at home and at school and to these students. And so I think that's what kind of grabbed me and interested me from the start. Also, I think it's very cool that they were inviting youth to be a part of the research team. I think we get a lot of researchers and professors and a lot of older folks, which is awesome. They're obviously more educated in a sense, but also I think it's important to bring in kind of the youth lens in what we're seeing. Also, I just think generationally, as we're studying stats that are coming from students around our age, what are we seeing from our perspectives, I think that's a very special insight. So yeah, that's kind of what drew me in.

0:05:30.0 SL: Well, I'm so glad that you've been a part of it. We were able recently to talk to some of the evaluators, the evaluation team in Minnesota about the Minnesota Youth Survey. And as a student in the state of Minnesota, that's a survey that you participated in. And then it seems like there was some really important data that was revealed in the survey results that you and the research team were looking at. What was the story that you all were seeing in that data that you wanted to make sure other people, understood more clearly? 

0:06:15.1 KM: Well, in 2022 to the Minnesota, the survey, they added a new question, which was, have you ever traded sex for a place to stay, food, any basic necessity to living comfortably? And so we were specifically studying that question in correlations to Native plus students and how that has affected them. Because what we were seeing when researching was that 1.3% of all students that answered yes to that question, or it was 1.3% of students that an answered yes to that question, all races, ages and gender. However, 4.3% of Native plus students said yes to that question. And that was the very alarming part that we were researching. Why was that happening? What other factors were contributing to these students answering yes to that question? And kind of like just digging in on why exactly that percentage was so much higher than the overall of students that had said yes to that question.

0:07:20.6 SL: And so what did that digging in look like? 

0:07:24.9 KM: So when we as a research team were talking to the researchers from the University of Minnesota and kind of going through the stats of it all, we were all kind of sitting around and just like talking and asking questions to the researchers. Like, did the students that answered yes to this question also answer yes to have they ever considered hurting themselves or others? Did they also answer yes to the question that they don't have a stable, living situation at home? Are they doing extracurriculars at school? Are they involved in different programs? Are, they, do they feel safe with their teachers at school? Do they, are they struggling with other students at school? What were the, what was correlating to them also answering that question. And so that's kind of what we were digging into when we were talking with the researchers.

0:08:21.2 SL: As you kept looking at these specific areas of people's lives and how they were connecting, what was it that your group then decided to highlight? What was revealed that you wanted to share with other folks? 

0:08:41.6 KM: Well, I think one of the biggest correlations we've seen was students identifying as transgender or different other sexual orientations if they identified within the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of those students were also answering yes to that question as well as students that were coming from households that were unstable. A lot of the students, or more than half of the students that answered yes to that question have also answered yes to dealing with different mental health problems where that could be, depression or anxiety. I know they asked about, on the survey, they asked about, eating habits and then everything under that kind of fell. But that's what we noticed that it, I believe it was 78% of students that answered Native plus students that answered yes to they have traded sex before, had also answered yes they've considered harming themselves or worse. So, yeah.

0:09:57.8 KM: So we know that you mentioned when we first started talking that there isn't a lot of data about the specific needs of Native plus folks. And that your team was looking at trying to change that, looking at shifting that in some ways. And you mentioned about all of those, connecting areas of life that you were looking at and different impacts. And we know that it's not just about having the data, but also figuring out, so what do we do to assist people in need to create more protective spaces, and to really honor people as full human beings and make sure that they are safe. You mentioned looking at, talking to people about what their experience is in school and at home. Were there any, specific things came up about what would make safer spaces for Native plus students? 

0:11:15.3 KM: Yeah, so when we were, coming up with our infographic and kind of drafting out, different things, we wanted to not only highlight the research that we had looked at for several months, but we also wanted to come up with some disruption strategies and some things that we thought after looking at all of this data could help or, help prevent things like this occurring in the future. So we came up with a few advocating for indigenous civic action and critical education, but also providing essential resources for communities.

0:11:58.4 KM: I think already in general Native communities, kind of get the raw end of the stick with just resources and or in our communities. And also just addressing stereotypes. We were obviously studying the survey a lot and the data, but we were also looking at other key factors within the Native community that have also kind of triggered this kind of data in the first place. And one thing that I remember us talking about as a group was just the amount of stereotypes and stories of, sex trafficking and things amongst the Native American community. Newsak published a Garden of Truth a while ago, where they went around interviewing, survivors, sex trafficking and sexual assault. And I remember my mother telling me once a story about how she was interviewing this woman, a survivor and she had been trafficked and her trafficker had said to her that he thought he, they had killed all of them, like killed all of the Native Americans.

0:13:20.9 KM: My mom heard stories of, traffickers asking women to role play as Pocahontas and things like that. We still see Pocahontas and Chiefs and things like that on Halloween in Halloween stores and things like that. So the stereotypes are around and it gives a sense of fetishizing Native American women in a really disgusting way. And so addressing those stereotypes was also one of our biggest disruption strategies that we came up with. As well as just fostering change for our communities and understanding that we have depleted resources and ineffective support systems and unresponsive legal frameworks. I know I'm from Minneapolis and I know the nation has heard nothing about this city in the past four years, but our communities, especially here, are struggling getting support and being able to trust our legal team here and our police and our lawyers and our mayors. And the people that are supposed to, stand up for our communities and support us and help us out. So yeah, those are some of the disruption strategies that we came up with.

0:14:50.0 SL: I love actually your language specifically calling it a disruption strategy. I think when we are working in the field of prevention and looking at social change, it is important for us to work on how we disrupt the things that increase the risk for sexual violence to happen and also replace it with the things that are gonna change those systems. Our culture or I think some of the things I've read for the report too. The importance of actually looking back at history around whose people, whose culture was prioritized, whose culture was denied, and how we can really revitalize the strength that we have in communities and make sure that folks are able to build that positive identity development being so critical. I really appreciate you talking about the wide needs here.

0:16:06.0 SL: It's so complex because it is about making sure folks are, have their basic needs met, right? Especially you making the connection between lack of resources, the fetishization of, Native American, women specifically, but I think, even more broadly than that. And then two, actually the connection to sexual exploitation. So it is a reminder or an illustration for folks about the many levels that are needed to do this culture change work. Do you have any thoughts, advice, for young people that have an interest in getting more involved in ending sexual assault harassment and abuse in their communities? 

0:17:05.4 KM: Well, number one, and this also is kind of going back to the last question, is that we also wanna create space for, righteous anger. There has been things happening to our community for generations and we carry that with us. The Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition, co-hosts a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Relatives march every year on Valentine's Day. And I think it's really, really important to have spaces like that where, we can collectively come together as a community and march and cry and talk and yell and sing for our missing and murdered loved ones that have been failed by our system. And I think spaces like that are important. And I think events and other things like that in the community that you can get involved in is so important and empowering. I remember just as, I mean, I, they've been hosting these marches for a while now.

0:18:16.5 KM: So I have been to a good amount over my life, but I can distinctly remember going in seventh grade and just feeling so empowered and inspired to be a part of such a community all working together and supporting each other for the same reason amongst all of our differences. We came together and showed up for one another. And it's important especially for, youth to be involved in these kind of situations. And then I remember my eighth grade year, I felt more inspired to gather students from my school to come with me and just getting things like that started and going and, getting your friends to go to a sit-in or a march or whatever it is. I think that's the perfect way to kind of start out and get involved. It's also the perfect way to meet people and make connections with people.

0:19:23.0 KM: 'Cause beyond that, there are important people there that are able to make change or affect change in our communities. We have had police officers at the marches and, we always have our lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan there to support the march. And we have other commissioners. The mayor has came, so there's a lot of different, like policy makers there as well. You kind of connect with and talk to and yeah, I think at, that's my advice to kind of getting out there and that's kind of how I started off. So yeah.

0:20:03.0 SL: I appreciate that so much. Well, do you also have any advice or thoughts for organizations like the National Sexual Violence Resource Center or community organizations or other folks that may be connected organizationally to programs around the country to embrace the youth, invite in the youth or follow the youth that are working to have their voices heard? What do you think would be some steps that folks at organizations could take to support youth in deeper ways? 

0:20:47.0 KM: I think that this upcoming generation of adults, Generation Z is very, very strong in the way that we kind of like to stick up for what we believe in. And I feel like we're kind of a stubborn generation, but we're also pretty hardworking. And I think it's important to be able to hear from a youth's perspective from things. And I think sometimes it's difficult because as an expert in a field you assume or whatever, that you necessarily wouldn't need that kind of perspective from a student, but everybody's perspective is so different on a situation and, the world is always changing. And I think it's a very important aspect to effective change in our communities. I think, honestly, my advice is to just kind of asking questions and being able to like just run past ideas or things like that with other students.

0:22:07.7 KM: I think we all have a lot of really great ideas and I think that we all kind of, like I said, the world's always changing. We all kind of have a different perspective on where we're coming from and how things are going. And you can know, you could run it past 15 adults and then you could also run it past like three students and they'd have three completely different ideas and answers to what we were looking at. So I just think it's important to kind of get that knowledge in and kind of fit it in to what's happening. And I think students these days, and even kids coming out of high school and college students we want to be a part of the conversation. We want to be a part of the change. So, yeah.

0:22:57.6 SL: Well, you 100% are [chuckle] a part of the conversation and creating a great, great change in your community and helping to share that around the country. Any final thoughts you wanted to share about your experience or anything else? I also know you have some, a research article that will be coming out soon. I didn't know if you wanted to let folks know, what they could learn there.

0:23:27.8 KM: Yes. So the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center asked me a few months ago to write an article for their magazine called the Restoration Magazine for their October edition. And they kind of just asked me to write about my experience as a young leader, but also where that's taken me now. I mean, I am 20 and I'm not a student in high school anymore. And kind of just where that's led me and where I expect to take that. So I talk a lot about the research I did last year. I also talk about my activism in middle school and high school and kind of the things that I did to get there and kind of what I've been sharing with everybody for the past few years. So yeah, that will be coming out in October and you can look up, the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center online to look at it.

0:24:28.9 KM: But that article is probably one of the biggest things I've done in my career yet so far. Kind of just getting my voice out there. My whole goal through all of this is to be a leader, but also inspire youth across the country to speak up and use their voice and also stand up for what they believe in. I think it's empowering. I feel empowered by myself sometimes thinking about how much fire I had in middle school as a 13 and 14-year-old, and not even really comprehending how much change I was affecting in my school community.

0:25:14.8 KM: But it makes me feel inspired for the students to come and the students in school right now to be able and to do something and to change. We have a lot going on in this country right now, and there's so many different issues and things to be talked about and policies to be stood up for. And so I think it's a perfect moment to get students to be able to understand and realize that they have all the power to change things and to speak up and no matter the adults or anybody else kind of telling you can't or you shouldn't, you definitely, definitely can. So yeah, that is my whole thing is kind of just empowering students and youth and yeah.

0:26:05.0 SL: Well, yeah is the right answer. I feel empowered by you. Thank you for sharing your time with us. I'm excited to see what the future holds for you and this next generation of folks that are making change. So thank you so much for being our guest today.

0:26:26.6 KM: Thank you.

0:26:27.6 SL: And again, we encourage folks to check out additional resources in our show notes and we hope you all come back and we'll hear some additional voices, from the field too. Thank you so much for being with us.

0:26:43.2 KM: Thank you so much for having me.

0:26:45.4 SL: Thank you for listening to this episode of Resource on the Go. Please check out the show notes for links to some of Kiora's work at nsvrc.org/podcasts. You can also get in touch with us by emailing resources at nsvrc-respecttogether.org.

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