‘Once Were Warriors’ shows at Mat-Su College

MAT-SU — Thursday night at Mat-Su College, a public viewing and discussion of the film “Once Were Warriors” sponsored by Knik Tribal Council, Mat-Su College and Mat-Su NOW was shown to help highlight Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The film, set in New Zealand, is the story of a woman and her family’s myriad ways of survival within their violence-prone neighborhood and Maori culture. When she is beaten terribly by her drunken husband multiple times, the couple’s five children find different ways to cope. One runs away when he turns 18. Another turns to stealing car parts and spending time on the streets, while another child — a daughter — writes fictional stories to tell to her two younger siblings and friends as an escape. The story of the family is introduced after the violence has happened for a long time, and the audience is just beginning to follow the relationship between the husband and wife as it escalates and sees how it all comes down in the end.

After the movie, a panel lead a discussion of the topics of domestic and sexual violence and culture norms brought up by the movie.

When asked by moderator Judy Gette to define the term “warrior” in their culture, panelist Donna Horton, an Athabascan clinical therapist specializing in trauma, responded.

“In my culture, the real warrior was the one that went out for food, brought it home and took care of the family, looked out for everyone’s well-being,” she said. “You only fought to protect, to keep a safe home.”

She paused to reflect on the film and Jake, the husband’s, violent ways of filling that warrior role.

“When one feels powerless, they fight against safety, against their families and are not warriors,” Horton said.

As seen in the film, the real warriors are wives and children who fight to survive and create safety for themselves. This topic of how to define a human’s role in society led to a dialogue on how people define themselves, what cultures say about roles in society, and how gender and age play parts in that definition.

“When it comes down to it, I think what is important is knowing who you are culturally and where you are with your indigenous people; know who we ourselves are as individuals and find where we fit in society,” said panelist Brian Maclean, Mat-Su College assistant director.

Finding that place in society is a struggle for everyone. Alaska has had the highest rates of sexual abuse and domestic violence for years due to the ongoing and hard-to-break cycle of violence.

Children who grow up in homes witnessing domestic violence are more likely to become perpetrators or victims of that violence in their own lives, according to panelist Ashley Peltier, a Native American sociologist.

“Kids copy what they see, so it’s no wonder in Alaska we keep seeing the cycle of violence over and over. With the governor’s initiative for Choose Respect, and programs like Alaska Family Services and Knik Tribal Council that are available, there’s a chance for recovery, but there needs to be an end, a sign that the cycle is slowing.”

There’s a story commonly told by in the social justice field about a boy on a beach. A storm has just passed and millions of starfish had washed up on the beach. So, this boy picks one up and tosses it back to the ocean. When a man asked what he was doing, the boy explained that he knew that if he didn’t rescue them from the surf, they would die. The man chuckled and responded that “there are millions of starfish; you can’t make a difference.” Politely, the boy stoops down, picks up a starfish and tosses it back.

“Made a difference for that one,” he said.

The large statistic of domestic violence in Alaska seems impossible to reduce at first glance. To improve the health and wellbeing of our communities, it’s going to take the community involvement. Making an effort for one person can lead to making a difference in the end.

“Demonstrate where to step in, when to offer help to a victim. We have to not judge, but be instruments of healing,” Horton said of ways for a community to help.

“To stop the cycle it takes advocates, everybody in the community, to send out a message that violence is not OK,” Peltier said. “We all need to get back to basics and see that regular respect among humans is missing.”

For more information, contact the Southcentral Foundation at 352-6000, or Alaska Family Services at 746-4080.

Dylan Gette-King is a senior in high school.