Love for survivors, always.

Idgaf what the verdict says. Just because a perpetrator is "not found guilty" doesn't mean they didn't spend years emotionally, sexually, physically, psychologically being abusive with just about everyone they came in contact with, children included.

Right down to the language being used (labelling survivors as "prostitutes") to the online & irl jokes we read and hear about (baby oil, freak offs, etc.), our trauma continues to be for shits and giggles in this rape apologist of a society. And we need to do better.

Along with previous ones, thi case & trial has shown us repeatedly that predators (esp rich/privilege) have and will always be protected by the very system that is supposed to "protect us" but harms us instead. It's functioning the way it was always supposed to.

This all comes with so many uncomfortable feelings and heavy work; exactly how colonizers wanted it to be. I don't even know anything about my dad's side of the family and what part of India they were from. All I know is that this identity crisis continues to be lonesome.

Intergenerational trauma continues to exist in many shapes and forms. Im so heavily disconnected from my South Indian culture & I hope one day that I get to connect with my roots and learn the language, the food, the music, the dance, everything that comes with this lost lineage.

The indentured labour system impacted many Indians. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures or documents of my Nani's grandfather, who was a slave taken from the British empire from Madras (now Chennai), put on a boat and shipped on dark, rough seas, sailing to a land he's never heard of.

Growing up Indo-Fijian, my identity is something I've always (and still do) struggled with. I've never felt Indian enough for the Indian community and never Fijian enough for the Fijian community. In every space, I always tried to find someone who was exactly like me for comfort & reassurance.