Amita Swadhin is a storyteller sharing narratives of LGBTQI Black and indigenous folks and people of color who survived child sexual abuse.In this episode, Amita shares how they have stayed committed to work helping sexual assault survivors. They share how societal systems meant to heal can continue harm for sexual assault survivors and how deep change is intergenerational and will require healing wounds of the past.Show notes:3:03: Not just sexual assault perpetrators are problem, but also institutions such as mental health hospitals, foster care homes, police, juvenile detention centers9:08: Building resilience in a reality that is unsafe11:48: Amita shares where they were and what happened when the news was leaked that the Trump administration was working on redefining gender.19:43: Amita shares about being at dinner with her partner who was getting texts from the media to respond about the news that the government was trying to redefine gender. How hard it is to process & give the media what they want quickly22:13: The relentlessness of being oppressed in this current government and that the danger is currently increasing24:05: How Amita spent the next day taking care of their friends and themself staying in their pajamas at home to recoup from the Sunday night stress.25:53 Amita finds hope in a long term perspective, knowing that our brains don’t function as well in a fear state. She reminds herself that despite hard times today, many minorities are doing better than ever before and change is intergenerational. She also discusses the power of friendships and solidarity31:08: How Amita views personal transformation and how grief & loss have helped her heal and do the work she’s doing now33:18: How doing other work eventually led her back to being a leader on policy for sexual assault survivors. She had some disappointing work experiences early in her career that made her leave, then the other work eventually led her back through the people’s stories she worked with.42:15: Learning how to handle PTSD so she could thrive in grad school and lots of alternative treatments to help with mental health47:14 How you can help end sexual violence; how to practice allyship & how sexual violence is a long term problem that can only be dealt with through healing the legacy of colonization and rape culture in the US.Thank you to the following artists for the music we sampled in this episode: Computer, by State Shirt (licensed under creative commons)