2nd Annual ‘Our Voices Restored’ Event in Bemidji Focuses on ‘Bridging the Gap’

Last year, the first ever “Our Voices Restored” event was held in Bemidji, where Regional Native Public Defense, The Recovery Space, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups gathered to talk about voting rights and other topics that especially affect Native Americans. Those organizations held their second event over the weekend, and the turnout was bigger and better than before.

“[Our goal is to] really give them a platform for their voices,” explained Paul Sullivan, and organizer with the ACLU of Minnesota. “Really, it’s trying to just make sure that people have the resources that they need, that they can come to this event, they can hear about the state of community, essentially.”

Along with the panel discussions, recovery-focused and other advocate groups had information booths to bring up more topics than were discussed on stage. One of the biggest reasons that the event was this large was not only to reach as many people as possible, but to let those people know about as many different topics as they can in one day.

“I think that oftentimes, we think about one thing and it just like, fizzles out,” said event organizer Audrianna Goodwin. “But this space that we’re creating here today really provides that opportunity for us to see that interconnectedness of the issues that we experience.”

The main focus of this year’s event was to “bridge the gap,” specifically the gap between Minnesota lawmakers and the community members that are affected everyday by laws that are passed, which was the main topic from the first panel discussion.

“All of these struggles really are one struggle,” said Sullivan.

“Although we have perceived differences as communities, we’re really a lot alike,” Goodwin added. “And it’s that love, it’s that grief, it’s those common issues and experiences that we as a collective human society face that really bring us together.”

The second panel discussion was focused on community members sharing their own lived experiences, and the third was a youth panel focused on the next generation stepping up to the plate.

“People can and do change, but without those opportunities to change, then we’re stuck in that same cycle of oppression that our communities have experienced for far too long,” Goodwin emphasized. “The last panel is planting seeds, and so we get to hear from young people in [the] community, because they’re living it, too.”

The event also had a focus on highlighting local leadership and hearing about their experiences with recent state legislation, along with the effects that they have been seeing in their own communities.