Boma Brown says she only began thinking of herself as a Black person when she began living in Canada.
“It was a huge realization of OK, I’m not just Nigerian,” she said. “People see my race first … they look at me, they see a Black woman.”
That would lead to surprising moments of kinship — such as Black strangers waving hello to her in the streets of Victoria.
But it also meant being at the receiving end of a whole host of societal assumptions and biases — an experience she discovered many of her Indigenous friends shared, particularly while accessing health care, she said.
In 2014, Brown founded the Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour during her final semester at the University of Victoria.
The social enterprise uses food and art to bring women together and provide free menstrual supplies, support services and even corporate training to tackle health-care disparities.
Brown said it was a struggle to bring up the issue of racism in health care when she first started the organization.
“For the longest time, people would ask us why we existed,” she said. “People don’t ask about that anymore.”
The 157-year-old Canadian Medical Association made a historic apology in Victoria this month for “past and ongoing harms” to First Nation, Inuit and Métis Peoples caused by the medical profession.
Brown said Black people face many of the same difficulties.
“There are lots of similarities between Black women and Indigenous women in terms of cardiovascular issues, reproductive health, [and] sexual health,” she said.
Brown said her organization aims to bring people together to fight the isolation and loneliness often faced by Indigenous women and women of colour.
It also provides tools to help people tackle their day-to-day issues, whether it be food insecurity or counselling services.
The organization’s domestic-violence workshops are funded by the Victoria Foundation’s community grants program, and Brown says they’re among its most popular events.
For years, the group brought people together at the Quadra Village Community Centre for meals with an educational twist.
“We talk about reproductive health while we eat,” she said with a laugh.
The subject is still taboo in many ways, she said. “But when there’s food, people who might not show up to an event about reproductive health will show up because food brings people together.”
The community meals still happen regularly at the organization’s offices in Quadra Village.
Support Network for Indigenous Women has now grown from its all-volunteer roots in 2014 to a full-fledged non-profit with seven staff members in B.C. and Ontario.
It runs events in Vancouver and Toronto as well as virtual programming for participants throughout Canada.
Brown said more than 2,000 people received help from the support network last year.
Two weeks ago, the group held a ribbon-skirt-making workshop as an opportunity for Indigenous youth and elders to connect. According to the Ribbon Skirt Project (the ribbonskirtproject.ca), ribbon skirts are a symbol of resilience, survival and identity for Indigenous women.
The skirts will be on display Sept. 30 at Kwench at 2031 Store St. from 5:30-7:30 p.m. as part of a Truth and Reconciliation Day event.
