Sacred Roots Production of 'Facing Traffick' Opens to a Rapt Audience
'Facing Traffick' opened on Monday, November 6, 2017 at the Salmon River Central Auditorium to a small, but attentive audience. They put on a repeat performance on Tuesday evening as well.
In a quick 45 minutes, 'Facing Traffick', a Sacred Roots theater production, deftly portrayed the world of sex trafficking. The cast and crew included seasoned performers along with new faces to the stage.
Through the glass covered opening of a sex trafficking advocate Jessica Liddell; the story follows the life of four women (Grace, Leah, Heidi, and Jane Doe) trying to deal with their involvement in the sex trafficking industry.
The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Social Services Division approached Sacred Roots Productions to write a play about 'trafficking' and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). Their goal is to draw attention to trafficking and just how close this is to the lives of our youth and to the lives of everyone in.
Montana Adams wrote the play along with her mother, Crystal Adams. As Montana became busy with her third year of theater studies at Ottawa University, she enlisted her Mom to help her finish the script. Melissa Chamberlain, with 16 years of mental health advocacy stepped in to tweak the script. Once approved, Shelby Adams, along with Jessica Loft co-producer, ramped up production of the play.
Adams stated, "It's here. It's been here for decades. Our goal is to help our community to be a safe place to live and to raise awareness. This is geared toward high school students, not only girls, but boys are just as vulnerable a target for trafficking. The LBGTQ community is another vulnerable target."
Sacred Roots Production will perform "Facing Traffick' with two matinees on Friday, November 10, 2017 at 2:30pm and 3:30pm at the St. Regis Mohawk School.
Definition of Trafficking
Did you know...
75% to 80% of human trafficking is for sex.
More than 80% of trafficking victims are female.
Native American/Aboriginal women are most vulnerable.
Most human trafficking takes place in New York State, Florida and California.
Human trafficking is expected to surpass the drug trade.
Human trafficking is one of the greatest human rights challenges of this century.
Definitions and Methodology of Trafficking According to DOJ US
What Is Trafficking In Persons?
"Trafficking in persons" and "human trafficking" have been used as umbrella terms for the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-386), as amended, and the Palermo Protocol describe this compelled service using a number of different terms, including involuntary servitude, slavery or practices similar to slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.
Human trafficking can include but does not require movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon is the traffickers' goal of exploiting and enslaving their victims and the myriad coercive and deceptive practices they use to do so.
The Face of Modern Slavery Includes:
Sex Trafficking
Child Sex Trafficking
Forced Labor
Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage
Involuntary Domestic Servitude
Forced Child Labor
Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers
Methodology
The Department of State prepared this report using information from U.S. embassies, government officials, nongovernmental and international organizations, published reports, news articles, academic studies, research trips to every region of the world, and information submitted to tipreport@state.gov. This email address provides a means by which organizations and individuals can share information with the Department of State on government progress in addressing trafficking.
U.S. diplomatic posts and domestic agencies reported on the trafficking situation and governmental action to fight trafficking based on thorough research that included meetings with a wide variety of government officials, local and international NGO representatives, officials of international organizations, journalists, academics, and survivors. U.S. missions overseas are dedicated to covering human trafficking issues.
Human Trafficking as Defined by United Nations
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol).
What is Human Trafficking?
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
To report trafficking call: Akwesasne Group Home at 518 358 9184, SRMT Health & Wellness at 800-647-7839, Saint Regis Mohawk Police at 518 358 9200 or the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service at 613 575 2340.
Reader Comments(0)