This Indigenous Peoples’ Day we gratefully recognize and honor the Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, Snoqualmie, Muckleshoot (Ilalkoamish, Stuckamish, and Skopamish), and other Coast Salish Peoples’, on whose ancestral homelands we live, work, and gather today. In the city, whose very name comes from the Suquamish and Duwamish Leader, Chief Seattle, we know that we could not call this land home without the stewardship of Coast Salish Peoples’.
When COVID-19 hit our region last year, we saw immediately just how dangerous it could be for our clients. Rainier Valley Midwives works with pregnant people and their families to improve parent and infant health outcomes in the Seattle area.
“There’s no excuse to not make a change,” shares Bereket Kiros, a community member who’s been working with King County’s Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group. This is his reflection of the past year.
Inequity and injustice impact us all. Since declaring Racism is a Public Health Crisis (RPHC), King County Government and Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) have committed to developing stronger and better resourced partnerships with community organizations and leaders to disrupt and dismantle racism and protect the health and well-being of our all our residents, regardless of race or location.
New works by seven local artists and community creatives offer fresh ways of understanding the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic with race, bias and culture.
Willard Jimerson, Jr. grew up in Seattle’s historically African American Central District neighborhood. Raised by a loving grandmother and grandfather, young Will could never have predicted that just six weeks after his 13th birthday he’d become a ward of the state and spend the rest of his childhood in America’s adult prison system.
One fatal and catastrophic moment on a late night in 1994 changed everything. The kid who once fancied himself a charming and mischievous prankster, who loved playing arcade games and pick-up football, was gone.