The purpose of this project is to produce a significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of lateral violence within Yukon’s Indigenous communities. Lateral violence includes any act of emotional violence committed by one member of an Indigenous community toward their fellow community members. Decades of institutionalized colonial violence and displacement from language, land and culture creates a cycle of violence. This project would shift the social environment through two types of training: in one, participants would learn to understand, prevent, interrupt and redirect situations of lateral violence in a visible way that models courageous kindness; in the second, the project would partner with three First Nations: Vuntut Gwitchin, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and Selkirk First Nation, to design and deliver strategies that discourage lateral violence and encourage lateral kindness. Through the project, communities would reconnect with their traditional values, which translates into a clear behavioural roadmap going forward.
