FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Contact: Curtison Badonie, [email protected] or 505-243-9199

Indigenous community leaders speak out on recent case of violence that lead to the death of young Taos artist

Albuquerque, N.M.— Today, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women issued the following statement regarding the developing details on the death of promising young artist, DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo, from Taos Pueblo:

“Today we continue to grieve the loss of yet another member of our Indigenous community.

“As community leaders from different tribal communities across New Mexico, we guide our work of addressing systemic violence against Native communities from a place of healing. Because we understand our communities have been pushed to repress historical trauma while reliving the same day in and day out–leading to ongoing self-harm through different expressions of violence against our own.

“Healing can only come when accountability is centered to address systemic issues negatively impacting our families and loved ones. Without a clear means to bring forth justice, to address root causes on a variety of fronts, and without the courage to talk about what is needed in order to heal, ourselves and our leadership become complicit in the ongoing oppression of our communities.

“The loss of young DeAnna is the latest example of something much deeper happening in our society–including tribal communities. It is an expression of the lack of action coming from men in power, who sustain impunity and thus perpetuate the devaluing of women’s lives. Because we must be clear that Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women is not simply a women’s issue, it is also a men’s issue that needs to be addressed by men for men.

“At this time, while we stand in grief with the family of young DeAnna, we also demand swift action from our tribal leadership to commit to creating spaces to support our Indigenous men in their healing and to have real conversations that begin to address the need to dismantle and break cycles of violence.”

To support any ongoing efforts by CSVANW to end the MMIW crisis in NM, the public can provide a donation at: https://www.csvanw.org/donate

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