OUR LOGO
Our new logo is the culmination of multiple years of change work at our centre. We hope you appreciate its combination of new and familiar imagery.
​Around the circle is a sweetgrass braid, familiar in our former logo. Our 30-year+ commitment to providing culturally safe services to Indigenous survivors of sexual violence, and anti-racist/anti-oppression community development as a mainstream provider is renewed in this logo.
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Sweetgrass is the sacred hair of Mother Earth and braided, represents body, mind, and spirit. Burning it is to purify thoughts and the environment around.
THE BRAID IS MADE UP OF 21 STRANDS FOR COMMUNITY SURVIVAL:
First
Seven strands for the previous seven generations
Second
Seven strands for grandfather gifts:
Respect, Love, Truth, Bravery, Wisdom, Generosity, Humility)
Third
Seven strands for seven generations to come
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We’ve had a need to define our organization with a symbol that reflects our commitment to working with all genders of human beings, not only with ciswomen, so we have dropped the symbol for 'woman', even as ciswomen remain to be many of the humans we serve.
We’ve kept a tree image, a symbol of the strength, endurance, and the healing powers of the earth. Rooted into the ground, our tree is growing, strong and able to withstand the storms it faces. A reflection of our trauma work and the healing growth that humans who work with us have faced and are undertaking. This change in service direction reflects our deeper understanding that gender based violence and specifically sexual violence impacts all genders, and for trans, gender diverse, non-binary and intersex people, at higher incidence than ciswomen.
We have also begun working with cis men as well, realizing that given the frequency of sexual assault of men and boys, services which can address their experiences with a sensitive, feminist and trauma informed lens are important. We invite you to contemplate our logo with deeper understandings of our support for people who have experienced sexual violence and our commitment to ending gender based violence.