Lift OneSelf -Podcast
Lift OneSelf Podcast - Mental Health, Healing & Wellness
Transform your mental health through real stories and real-time healing practices.
Host NatNat Be invites experts and everyday people to share their personal journeys navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, and emotional challenges, then guide you through the healing practices that helped them transform.
Experience breathwork, meditation, somatic techniques, and therapy tools in real time. Whether you’re seeking emotional healing, stress relief, or personal growth strategies, you’ll find raw, authentic stories and actionable practices you can use immediately.
This is emotional sobriety in action.
This is LiftOneSelf.
New episodes weekly.
www.LiftOneSelf.com | @LiftOneSelf
And remember always be kind to yourself.
Lift OneSelf -Podcast
Strength and Healing in the Indigenous Fight Against Modern Slavery - Episode 92
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As I sat down with Jojo, whose heart beats fiercely for Indigenous communities and the fight against human trafficking, we shared a dialogue that was both an awakening and a sanctuary. Our guest's powerful advocacy and riveting personal stories shine a light on the stark reality that traffickers exploit not just individuals but entire cultures — a haunting reflection on our society's systemic failings. We dissect the intricacies of human trafficking, debunking myths and exploring the psychological warfare traffickers wield to strip away the essence of consent from their victims. Through Jojo's lens, we grasp the historical threads that tie the past to the present struggles of Indigenous women, illuminating the urgent need for societal reform and stronger safeguards.
Nestled within the heart of this episode, we cradle the delicate journey of healing from trauma, understanding that survivors require the grace of time and a return to self to mend their fragmented spirits. The presence of trauma-informed care as a beacon of hope in this process cannot be overstated. It's here Jojo paints a vivid picture of the emotional landscape many Indigenous women navigate — where trust in authorities wanes, and the yearning for aspects of their past confounds their path to recovery. We stand witness to the unspoken resilience that surges beneath their stories, each one a testament to the power and necessity of patient, compassionate support.
As we wrapped up our conversation, the echoes of our shared insights on child safety and parental empowerment lingered in the air, a call to arms for guardians of the future. We discussed the imperative of arming our children with knowledge and open lines of communication to shield them against the morphing dangers of today's world. In the spirit of community and self-preservation, we extend a hand to our listeners, urging them to nurture their well-being and practice self-care. After all, acknowledging the weight of our collective responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us begins with a single step of kindness toward oneself.
Remember, the strongest thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help.
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Human Trafficking Awareness With Jojo
Speaker 1Hello .
Speaker 2Hey Jojo , how are ?
Speaker 1you .
Speaker 2I'm good . How are you ? I'm well . I'm well Good . It's nice to meet you . Nice to meet you ?
Speaker 1Nope , I've been interviewed lots about HT , so I'm totally comfortable , okay , and the energy is comfortable right now , so that's good , great , great .
Speaker 2Sometimes I come and then there's some ladies that are just like all right , so this is , and I'm like okay , okay , okay , I'm gonna fly with you , I'm with you , I'm an energy healer , so I know about the beautiful . And then I know to like , let's regulate ourselves and not get all ramped up , because it's a topic that can activate your system very much . So , yes , um , so I'm going to do my best to keep myself grounded , uh , you know how to do it for yourself . Um , yet just grounding ourselves , uh , because I'm very mindful , too of the reaction , what the listeners are going to feel and anybody that triggers anything . Um , being mindful of that also , yet also giving them pointers . You know , just pause . If this is bringing up too much in your system , please pause , don't do all of that , um , and come back when you feel you can handle the context perfect absolutely welcome to the lift oneself podcast , where we break mental health stigmas through conversations .
Speaker 3Absolutely tools of self-care , meditation and growth that help you be curious about your own biology . Your presence matters . Please like and subscribe to our podcast . Help our community grow . Let's get into this . Oh , and please remember to be kind to yourself .
Speaker 2Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast . Jojo , I am so thankful you're here with me .
Speaker 1Thank you very much for having me , yeah .
Speaker 2I'm looking forward to doing a deep dive into a subject I think is too much in the shadows and there needs to be light and we need to normalize the conversation , and so , for some of the listeners , we're going to go into the subject matter of human trafficking . Therefore , there is a big trigger warning that some of the stories or the things that we share may activate some people . So , at any time that you may feel that your emotions are feeling too overwhelming or you're not able to control your behavior , please pause . Do not do a disservice for yourself to keep going into something that's activating you to the point that you don't feel like you have any control internally . And you know , take a moment to pause and process . Let yourself feel those big emotions that are coming up . Allow yourself to look at some of those experiences , to let go of those energetic charges that are stored inside your body . You know , healing doesn't mean that , poof , it's all gone in your processing . It means that you have the tools to continue to process and no longer suppress and push things down .
Speaker 2So I want to give you that warning and I will continue to give the warning throughout the podcast , just to give yourself a reminder , to do a check-in to see what's going on internally with the content that we're talking about . Jojo , would you be willing to come into a meditation with me so that we can ground ourselves in our breath and open up the space of dialogue , absolutely For the listeners . As you always hear my spiel , you might be driving or doing something with your visual , so please don't close your eyes . I want you to be safe and everybody around you to be safe . Yet the other prompts you're able to follow even with your eyes open . So , jojo , I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seating and you're going to gently close your eyes and you're going to begin breathing in and out through your nose , bringing your awareness to watching your breath go in and out . There may be some sensations or feelings coming up in the body .
Speaker 3Let them come up . You're safe to feel .
Speaker 2You're safe to let go , surrender the need to control Release the need to control release , the need to resist and just be , be with your breath , drop into the body . There may be some thoughts or some memories that are coming up . Don't push them away , just let them pass through . Yet keep your attention on watching your breath and more sensations may be coming up also .
Speaker 3It's creating a safety within your body to allow yourself to no longer resist and control , and stay anchored with your breath , keep your awareness on your breath and go deeper into your body and go deeper into your body continue staying with your breath .
Speaker 2Jojo , I'm going to ask you in your mind to create an intention you want to bring forth in this conversation and for the listeners . And when you've created that intention , I'm going to ask you to release it in your mind , allowing it to drop down into your nervous system , passing down through your throat , through your heart , through your stomach and into your life force , while still staying with your breath and into your life force , while still staying with your breath , allowing that intention to grow and surround your energy force .
Speaker 3Continue focusing on your breath and dropping deeper into the body , into the now , now , while still staying with your breath at your own time and at your own pace I'm going to .
Speaker 2Can you let the listeners know who Jojo ?
Speaker 1is a very strong advocate for the Indigenous community here in Ottawa and in my six nations , across Ontario and across the world . I portray myself as a safety net for women . To a safety net for women , to women and men and children to come to me and ask for help and ask for safety or the resources for safety . I'm a grandmother . I'm a lone wolf 90% of my time and I'm a person that thinks outside the box at all measures . I enjoy being a grandma and I'm a mother and that's probably my most accomplishment and achievement in my life Coming from nothing and building up to something . In my life .
Speaker 2Beautiful For some of the listeners because this is international . Can you name out the six nations so people have more awareness and can name things ?
Speaker 1This is like the flag that's behind me . It's Onondaga Mohawk , tuscarora , oneida Seneca .
Speaker 2That's all of them , yep , that's right , I know I love when I have to remember . I'm like I have to go to the boxes . I love that . So now your work . As you said that you're a safety net and I believe the crux of what you do is helping with human trafficking . Can you let us know what brought ?
Speaker 1you into this field .
Speaker 1So that's the that's probably the biggest confusion in the days Like my daytime job is not my HT life .
Speaker 1It incorporates in my HT life because of child welfare , right , but because there's conversations and there's do's and don'ts and it kind of intertwines with that .
Speaker 1But the life that I have outside of that life I got to this position or this time in my world , in my space , is because building up the rapport probably a decade ago , with some gangs here in Ottawa and keeping six , keeping it safe that I had a job to do and the police have a job to do and at the time I was a youth counselor , a youth worker , and I never tampered , I never invaded their space of what was going on with their lives . And that's how this and when I look back , that's how this all rolled into what I do now because of knowing the boundaries of an officer , community , individual and what's going on in that person's life at that time . That's how this all snowballed and as a decade later some of those people have progressed to doing what I do now , which is terrible , but also have progressed to help us because of their life choices . They can be a positive and they can be a negative in this world of HT .
Speaker 3Okay .
Speaker 2So can you let the listeners know what your daytime job is ?
Speaker 1I'm an EDI . I'm an equity , diverse and inclusion worker for the children's Ottawa Ottawa children's aid society and I'm also the activator for the TRC , the child welfare league , as a part-time job and I'm the HT liaison for Aqua Sesame .
Speaker 2Well , that's a whole lot there , Jojo .
Speaker 1And then I volunteer for what we're talking about today .
Speaker 2Okay , so what is it that you do with the HT ? How do you , you know , in this past decade , how have you built this community and this safe net and the work that you've done ?
Speaker 1in the beginning it was just walking in our own community here in Ottawa and making sure that the women that were working the streets were safe , because prostitution is completely different than human trafficking and people's choices and consent is a whole other topic and dynamic . I just started walking and seeing the loopholes and then seeing people , you know , getting picked up and dropped off . You know it just again . I'm going to use the word snowball a lot because it went from just walking and being a community member , being out there on the streets making sure , you know , the homeless were taken care of . It's all the dynamics of the homeless and prostitution and being out on in the community and then seeing a very , very big jump once COVID hit , where a lot of people were not out , and being inside and then being transported and then being transported out of the city , and then communication through other territories and the wonders , and and then me moving to the north and then seeing it verbatim , openly , verbatim , openly , not hidden , and then again having that tool , knowing that there is officers to protect and serve our communities but that doesn't always go the right way for Indigenous communities because of the lack of trust in our history , and then people and communities thinking that I'm a safe person to talk to and getting resources .
Speaker 1And then that's snowballing into resources , calling back and them making the linkages to find safety or find that safe person to call to get them out of that situation . And then it just has just enormously snowballed into something that if you would have asked me five years ago I wouldn't have probably thought . I sit here now going across the world from that snowballing in five years that's how fast it is . It's a $160 billion monument every year . You have to understand that it's the second largest besides the drug trade and it happened in 10 years , not 25 and the Alcohol Coalition back in the 40s . It's like five years boom , $160 billion industry . And , as you see in the media , there's people that we have admired and listened to and watched for decades now being a part or linked to some of this activity .
Speaker 1right , which is eye-opening to me and it happens everywhere , like I have progressed in where I thought the norm would be to places where I'm like , seriously , you want me to do what and go where and dress this way because I need to portray something as this . It's everywhere . So safety is my word always , because safety has to be illuminated in spaces everywhere for someone to feel safe boys , girls , lgbq , community , everywhere yeah , that's the uh , that's the mission statement that I have with the work that I do .
Speaker 2My company's called lift oneself and it's the nervous system needs safety . The only way it's going to relate is with safety , and to do healing you need radical honesty , and so if there's a safety , you're not able to be honest . And once you can start developing honest , you can start having trust with yourself . So safety needs trust and to be able to open up , you need it . Safety is always in the crux of anything . If you want some kind of change or transformation , absolutely , I may have gotten ahead .
Understanding Human Trafficking Dynamics
Speaker 2So can you give the definition or explanation of HT ? Because automatically people think HT is always attached to sex , where that isn't the case . So could you give a definition of HT and the work that you do with HT ? Like , is it a broad spectrum or is it only certain parts of it ?
Speaker 1Well , there's going to be the textbook version of HT , but ours is consent , right . And then there's the age , the ageism , right , the ageism brings it up . There's organ human trafficking , you know . There's sexual trafficking , and then there's human trafficking . And then there's , you know , smuggling is completely different than the human part of it . And human trafficking has been around . Human trafficking has been around since . You know , I always go back to you know , our first sex trafficking person in my world was Pocahontas , and that's been around since the 1800s . So human trafficking is consent .
Speaker 1In my mind , when I go out , it's how old the person is . If it's a child , that's a relationship , thinking that they're in a loving relationship , but it's actually trafficking and that's the grooming part of it , to get entered into , the trafficking part of it . So that's my JoJo version of it . When I go out and where I need to , I have a duty to report . My full-time job is a duty to report . So that's the child's always in my mind . Every child matters , no matter how old they are , because I'm an older woman . So , um , but that's , that's my version of ht and that's the definition that I go out because I know my duty report and also to keep my community safe and with the vast majority of what's going on with our mmip in our communities . Um , that's another part of the consent and the way of working with the community when I sit with these women or men and they wanting to escape that issue that they're at right now .
Speaker 3Okay .
Speaker 2So , as you said , some of them aren't even aware that they're being trafficked because of the deaf and and you know once we understand trauma and what it does with the nervous system , that sense of belonging , wanting to be connected , not knowing that it's a very toxic and abusive relationship or partnership that you're in and you don't realize you're being manipulated into doing things that you haven't even consented yet . It feels like you did because you want this sense of connection . What does that look like when you engage with those people ?
Speaker 1After the fact or before the fact ? All of it , all of it . Everybody wants love . This is where this is how I , this is how I do it . Everybody wants love . And in my world is how I . This is how I do it . Everybody wants love .
Speaker 1And in my world , poverty , when desperation sets in right and poverty sets in , you almost do anything for what you need in that moment , right and in the bottom line , everybody wants love in their world . So when , when you're finding love and that person sees that desperation for that person to need love , and they have the trafficking mind , it can take you . It doesn't take a week , it doesn't take a month . These groomers are very well capable to stay in your life for two to three years until they get to a place where you're so wrapped around the love , part of that relationship that you don't know how to unwind what has taken place over a year , over two years , and now you're at a place where you're going to have to make those choices and either consent or not consent to those choices .
Supporting Trauma Survivors Through Healing
Speaker 1When I end up with a person that wants out , first thing is you know they're exhausted , they need to sleep , they need to rest , they need to eat and they just need to be in their own space .
Speaker 1I know resources . I deal with them every day . Resources want to get in and try to help . We're helpers . That's what we do , you know . We want love . We want to help after someone . Get in and try to help . We're helpers , that's what we do , you know . We want love . We want to help after someone leaves that world . But sometimes people just need to be because they have never been in that space where they can just be who they are , wake up and open their eyes and let their bodies just be in the moment . And I know blessings to the people that want to help . But they want to get in and they just need some time . They need time just to let their body meditate into their own selves for five minutes like a day a week , depending on the length of how much time they've been involved in that life . It really you really have to listen to the voice of the survivor .
Speaker 2Yeah , thank you for that reminder for people , because that's where I advocate also . It's like everybody wants to come in and rescue people , where it's like , you know , there's a part where people have to be in a cocoon and I'm hearing is that cocoon ? In that cocoon , you know , the caterpillar has to eat itself , it has to go through goo and it's very painful . And for these women or men coming back into their body , into safety of no longer being in this kind of treadmill of a life , it feels very daunting , it's very exhausting , it's very overwhelming and they need that space just to process their own emotions , without somebody telling them how it needs to look , what they need to do . Let them , like I love your language of connecting back into the self , like , let them find their way to come back home into their body , because they've been out of their body to be able to , you know , navigate the environment that we're in .
Speaker 2Like , you know , there's some people that they say that they're trauma informed and I'm like , okay , well , go one step further . Be trauma , you know , competent , really understand what the nervous system needs , understand what trauma has done in the separation of self and that worth , that vulnerability and what these defense mechanisms have created , and you know the journey that these individuals are going to have to go through is going to be a long , strenuous one one , so don't come attack them with okay , we're all in . It's like stop trying to soothe people to soothe yourself .
Speaker 1Absolutely . There'll be a place and time for what they need to do . But sometimes and it's you know the statistics and I'm not a statistic person I don't really listen to them because our MMIG statistics about how many MMIG or MMIP are missing in Canada they'll never get the real statistics . Canada will never ever get the real statistics because Indigenous peoples don't trust the police , so you'll never get the right . How many people are missing ? We know the truth . You can go around to every territory and ask how many people are missing and what's going on . But stats-wise , for financials , for resources , for monies , they'll never have the proper numbers of how many people are missing .
Speaker 1And these women or men and children you have to go that far , down to children will come into a space and time in their healing where they're going to miss what they were doing and they're not going to know how to navigate , how they're feeling because they're missing what they were doing and they know it's bad , but they're missing it .
Speaker 1Or they're missing that person or they're missing those persons that were taking care of them , that were feeding them , that were clothing them . Yes , they had to do the unmanageable to receive those resources , but there's going to be a part of their heart where they're like , but I also miss it and I don't know how to navigate those feelings . That's where the time and the space for those emotions to arise and those resources to come in at those proper moments to help heal those people , or they go right back . And the one thing I've said to resource people and people across the world that want to be helpers , you're the face that they saw when they wanted that space and time to take that moment to heal and they'll always be that person's face in their mind when they really want to exit and they'll come back when they're ready .
Speaker 1And that's where safety is always my number one . I may be on the street tonight and not see no one , but I was on the streets two months ago and one person saw me and said there she is again . You know what I really want to go get some help . I'm there to talk to . I'm a phone call away .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's the biology . Once you understand trauma , it's also too . It's like there's these chemical releases that happen in the nervous system , so the adrenaline , the cortisol , those become addictions and all of a sudden , like , um , you could have been very aggressive and arguing all the time and then everything's fine , but you want to argue with somebody , you want to get into like a tussle with somebody , and it doesn't logically make sense because the person is really calm , but you want them to engage , like why aren't you engaging ? Biologically , this is what's happening . So it makes it really confusing .
Speaker 2And why do I have these feelings and sensations ? Because logically it doesn't make no sense . And it's allowing people to understand their biology and that's what I do with my work because it's like I think that's the missing piece where you're not explaining biologically . This is why there's addiction , like the avoidance of the pain . So it's there's these sensations that are coming up , that you're going to have to ride the wave to better understand the depths of some emotions that you've never felt before and that person is going to say , you know , when they come , I've heard , I've heard this many times , it's so boring to get normal .
Speaker 1It's so boring . And I'm like you know there's there's many different answers you can say to that . And then that's when you know the um , the Rolodex of resources and what the life can be like when it's when the normal people step in . That's what they say . I'm using some people's quotes of Rolodex of what normality looks like in a day-to-day life , if you're going to a job or if you're going to school .
Speaker 1If you weren't in that life , in that game , in that life anymore , yeah , we look boring because they're not waking up at eight o'clock in the morning . They . Or , yeah , we look boring because they're not waking up at 8 o'clock in the morning , they're waking up at 4 , you know . And they have a hard life at night , when the day-to-day people are sleeping at night to get ready for the next day , kind of thing . So there's a lot of emotions that come to the table to exit this life and the stats say , you know , it's one to seven times before the person actually exits . So and in our world today it has transformed . You know , it has transformed for generations of people now trafficking their own family members because of poverty being so high in our country , and that's very scary can you open that dialogue so people can really understand what that means ?
Speaker 2Like I , you know the work that I did . I was privy to a lot of information because I worked with the RCMP , so I got to see a lot of things that I couldn't share out because of the work . You know it could be as simple like some people think . These nannies that come here and that are working with families came here of their own will , and it could be lawyers and doctors that have these nannies . You think everything is on the up and up , yet they are in a situation of HT . It may not be sexual , it may be just to help with the resource of the children , Yet they have been brought over with , you know , different trinkets .
Speaker 2Yet their life is not of their own . So could you open with that you know , really show what the different parts of it can look like , especially here in Canada , cause we're in Canada and people think , oh no , everything's okay , and it's like if you only knew the shadows , like I want you to really open up the space about indigenous women , because it is it .
Human Trafficking Impact on Indigenous Women
Speaker 2I'm like my nervous system's ringing off . I come from Sudbury , so there was , you know , the language when I used to be young was that they were almost like an other type of people . And look at alcohol . And my question used to always be well , why are they sniffing glue ? Why are they drinking alcohol ? Why are they not taking care ? Like what brought them to this space ?
Speaker 2And the adults would never talk about that and me as a child would be like so enraged because it's not logically making sense for me , it's not spiritually making sense for me . And then hearing , especially out West , when the farms were going on even down by Niagara Falls too , there's other farms that go on . They're party farms or whatnot . Yet these Indigenous women go missing and nobody wants to say , because they've been labeled of a certain standard , that they're treated like other and not human , so we don't need to put any resources and it's like that is a human being . It's not an indigenous person , it's a human being . So where is this othering ? I gave you a big context , so that's okay , that's okay .
Speaker 1So I could go right into the whole history , but that would take probably three or four days for us to get through a whole podcast . But I'm going to say that maybe the listeners know about the history and if they don't , then they can dissect the TRC in Indigenous history . In my community I'm saying , as of 2024 , I'm going to put it out there Our Indigenous women . I'm going to label women . I'm not going to choose to talk about men too much because that's just coming into effect . It's always been there , but it's really getting a hot topic now in our communities . Indigenous women can be all different colors of brown . So that's money to human trafficking people and when .
Speaker 1Trafficking can happen everywhere . And so let me , let me go back . Trafficking can happen absolutely everywhere . I've been in hockey arenas where it's the boys that are the groomers trying to find the girls . Now let's take off the Indigenous hat for a minute , but there is Indigenous hockey players too also . But I've been in hockey arenas . I've been in dog parks . I've been in libraries . I've been in universities and colleges . I've been in the malls . I've been in the nail salons . I've been in the tanning salons . It happens everywhere . I've been in the courthouses . I've been in PO offices With our history and poverty and systems that we've been up against in our time span here on Mother Earth .
Speaker 1It's always been the commodity , because we always been the other , and the flavor of the brownness has always been a moneymaker , because we've always been less than so . Now , in 2024 , because we can have different colors of brown , that's almost like a checkbox of how much a person may make in the human trafficking world , especially if right now , if that Indigenous person could also be labeled as a Black person or a darker brown person , or a Chinese person or a Mexican person , that different shade of brown is money to those people that are selling our Indigenous women . The look , the cheekbones , the slanted , like it's all about the money and what that person looks like fat , skinny , tall , short it doesn't matter . It's almost like a catalog of what they're looking for . Indigenous women since the time of Pocahontas have been up against systems to make themselves loud in a community so that they get . We always say that we have to be twice as smart to get half of what everybody else has . So we have to put ourselves out there and sometimes that fight is just too much .
Speaker 1Something may happen if we're going through addictions and we're on a path of sobriety , something happens in our world , desperation sets in . There's a thousand different reasons why this could happen to an Indigenous woman . And then coming up in the system , you know , coming up in the system and not knowing where the resources are , or a better life , or it is what it is . I'm just going to go , do what I need to do to survive . That's the comments that I get from a lot of my sisters on the streets of their individual stories . But then I've had right from the you know A to Z . I had a good upbringing . I fell in love , I thought I was in love and then , two years later , it took the turn for the worse . Where now I was he , you know , he lost money , or he needed a car or you know , and he asked me to do this , for him to , to drop this off , to drop that off , and then all of a sudden it was dropping off at a bar , at a strip joint . It just progresses Simply . I want to use that word simply because if you're in it , you don't see where the warning signs are until you get in it . Now , okay , go and strip , go . Do this favor , just be with this person , go out for the supper with this person , and then the sexual part comes into it and that's what the consent comes into . In our world right now , nat , we're , we're at , we're at .
Speaker 1Two-year-olds , three-year-olds , four-year-olds were big money to purchase . These babies are unbelievable and indigenous people from a baby stage are purchased so that they can be brought up in this HT world to just produce babies for the production of human trafficking . And babies are sold um Guala Mala . We were in , we were . I was in Guala Mala with the Indigenous um peoples there , driving , we're walking in the market and enjoying all the . You know the textiles in Guala Mala and you know their gang over there .
Speaker 1Um picks up a two-year-old by her pank tails and takes off on a motorcycle and my , my reaction is , you know , to run after them , because that's what I would do here in Canada . And then the police , you know pointing guns at me because I'm trying to help the mother get the baby back . Well , you know systems . Let's bring it back to Canada , that system over there . Well , the police were in on that because I would look like the perpetrator trying to help that mother get her child back . Well , the system must've been on it because I was the one that had the guns pointed at me , and not little guns , you know AKA 47s pointing at me helping the mother try to get the child back . So back to Canada .
Speaker 1We don't trust systems and if that's the only way that we're going to get help is to to vulnerably go into a system . That's where survivor , survivor mode , comes into taking care of ourselves and doing whatever we need to do to survive . And when I say generational trafficking now I can just use my city , because we have a housing crisis in Ottawa . Groceries gas gas is $2 , whatever the heck the thing is . Right now that's the talk of the town . Groceries gas gas is $2 , whatever the heck the thing is . Right now that's the talk of the town .
Speaker 1People want to survive and doing the intangible in a family , coming from a grandma to a mom , to a daughter or a son it's survival mode and that's the only way that we know how to survive . Not saying that sexual trafficking is something that we have to do to survive , but sometimes we just don't know the outs because that's how we were brought up , from the systems that we were already implemented in , and lack of parenting and trust . All that history comes into a fact where survival mode comes into effect and what to do to survive ? I would never . I I'm , I'm going to , I'm going to talk .
Speaker 1Streetwise People say my hood , my community here in Ottawa . You know it's it , you know it's a bad , dirty place and I'm like no community really sticks together and that's why we have what we have now and our girls know people in our community to be safe places . It's when I travel outside my little community here and go , because human trafficking head , where people are making so much money , being transported nightly and swapping out indigenous girls into different cities , is a goldmine . As I I said in the beginning , it's $160 billion within 10 years . It's skyrocket that . And we don't trust so we don't talk and then when we want help , we know where to go for to get help . I hope that's answered your question a little bit it has it has .
Speaker 2I just want to take a moment because some of the listeners may it may hit it , hit me . You know it's it . I I'm not shocked by things . I still get very touched by things .
Speaker 2I understand that a lot of us want to protect our psyche and think that these cruel things aren't happening to children or to humans and by doing that , you silence and you're not bringing forth the healing .
Speaker 2You know we have to talk about these things and not in um . We just really have to talk about about this to bring the shadows into the light , and it's very uncomfortable . So , like I said , if something got triggered in you cause , my tears were at the cusp and I was cause I could really feel what that would feel like for a child in the heinous thing , what is done to a child . And I understand that these are things that we don't want to talk about or we don't want to think about because we have to still function in our day-to-day . Yet you know these conversations still have to be had because all those victims are going through that and then they don't have a space to be able to process their experiences , they don't have a voice that's advocating for them because people want to be no , that doesn't exist , that doesn't happen . People are not doing that and it's like yes , it is .
The Harsh Reality of Human Trafficking
Speaker 1One thing I do when I do , when I present , is I ask everybody to stand up . So usually there's big symposiums , three or 400 people , and they all stand up and I said , you know , do a good stretch , get into yourself and I'll say , if everybody will stay standing , who will stay standing for the next four or five hours while this presentation is going on ? And do it completely naked . Please stay standing . Of course you're going to get giggles right and they're like I'm not staying standing because I'm not getting naked in front of all these people . And I say , well , when everybody sits down and they get quiet , I'll say how do you think that child , that youth , that young mom , that young dad , whoever has to be naked and do the unmanageable duties to get food , to be able to go outside , to take a shower and be told what to do , be controlled on what to do and how much they're going to get , and have to be completely naked for days on end ?
Speaker 1Because , like the famous movie Sounds of Freedom said , a gram of cocaine can be used one time , but in human trafficking , sex trafficking , can you use a baby from two to 21 , five to 10 times a day up to the 25th birthday , 30th birthday , and that's where the skin tone and the ageism comes in , because a 21-year-old could look like an 18-year-old , could look like a 17-year-old and that progress , that money keeps on flowing . When you can use that gram of cocaine one time and it's gone , but you can use that baby , that youth , five to 10 times a day at $ or 600 , 700 , a thousand dollars per action . That's a lot of money . And keep that person captive from the ages of two , 12 , 10 , till they're 20 , until they're old enough or used enough that the person thinks that they're no good for anyone else . That's a lot of money . That person can be used and be naked and to do and to perform the intangible acts every day of their life . So when they exit that life , they need to just be and breathe , just like your science says behind you . Just breathe , because it hasn't , they haven't been themselves for a very long time .
Speaker 1Yeah , the people need to feel because we go about our day-to-day like every , every morning I get and I everybody goes on to the it ha , it's happening in places people don't realize . Conversations need to be formalized every day and awareness of what's happening , where people are watching , groomers are watching , and it doesn't matter . We have a big shift right now because , you know , groomers were always male in the big world . Groomers were always male In the big world . Groomers were always male trying to get the girls in . Well , that has big time shifted because our Indigenous boys are beautiful with their long hair and more money when they can look like a boy and they can look like a girl . Right , you got to think , as one of those people that are going to buy it so that our Indigenous boys are a high commodity right now .
Speaker 1But it's happening everywhere that , um , the age is lowering and um , the awareness of , of protecting yourself and safety netting yourself , no matter where you're going . Um , fentanyl is a big thing here in the ottawa city . It's now liquefied so you can can put it in a water bottle to drug somebody . So our young people , you know coming to the city to go to school and to live . You know to live that dream of going to school , going to university and living and going out with friends and all of a sudden getting into , you know , a bar and having that fentanyl put in their drinks , or that you know , and it's so drinks , or that you know , and it's it's so . Every space has a do's and a don'ts . That's what , how I put it . I'm so happy that the university , you know , on frosh week they have a night of of city life . And I go in and talk and say you know , heads up where you're going , watch , you know , go in , go in packs . It's like the nineties version . Go in packs , you know , have your cell phone . Go in packs . It's like the 90s version . Go in packs , you know , have your cell phone . Know where your safety nets are .
Speaker 1But now the traffickers have made us step up our , our , our tools to keep our young people safe and baby safe . You know , I've been asked to go to schools where they're , you know , um , the groomers are outside the schools with juice boxes and sandwiches and subs and phones and tablets and luring them in with that like juice boxes . That's where poverty and desperation sits in . That's a whole other level of trafficking . And then to get to sexual trafficking , right , like it's everywhere . That's why we have to have it in our schools big time for our little ones to know their do's and don'ts and who they can go to for safety and who their safety person is . High schools big time , because our young people want to fall in love and have that dream of being in love right , but they don't want to have end up in a different spot and it can happen to any .
Speaker 1You know the word status . I know people use status for status cards , but I'm talking about monetary status . It can happen to anyone with a different financial status . Anyone People have to be aware of that . It's just not .
Speaker 1I'm going to say this because I can . It's not the dirty Indian down in Vannia that's getting human trafficked or sex trafficking . It's happening everywhere . Dirty Indian down in Vanier that's getting human traffic or sex trafficking . It's happening everywhere . And our girls are not dirty . They're absolutely gorgeous and beautiful souls . But I don't want to have that label . It only happens there . It doesn't happen just here .
Speaker 1I can say honestly and verbatim , with the creator standing and all my ancestors standing behind me our neighborhood has been very safe in the last three years , all my ancestors standing behind me . Our neighborhood has been very safe in the last three years . They get in and they transport them out because we have such a safety net of our people being aware of what's going on and our do's and don'ts in our community . Here , in the Indigenous community in Ottawa . It's the other outside places that they're getting transported that need more education , and the cities and the loopholes , and it's our women that have taken a turn to being the groomers , because a woman can be such a neutral nature of love to another female . It's just a motherly thing .
Speaker 1So the traffickers have really thought about you know what . Let's not put the man at the table , because now everybody's getting aware that the man's buying up . So now they're putting our women in front of us and saying you go , groom them and get them in , because you can have , you know , three or four girls can have a dorm and everything . You can have a dorm , you can have a house , you could be that grandma figure , you could be that motherly figure . But guess what ? There's other denominations , there's other situations that are going on in the background that that woman is portraying to be that nurturing person , and guess what ? They're not . So we're finding that out now too , which is scary . Who is safe ? Who is safe in each , no matter what color of this , of the medicine will you come from ? Who's safe and who's doing it with with an honest , humble heart , and who's safe ?
Speaker 2yeah if you look at history , brothels were run by women and it's the same principle . So it's that nurturing that oh , I'll take care of you and feeling okay well , that mother in love and you'll protect me . Yet I'm gonna have to do some things to earn that love . So it's real . Like you know , it's really tapping into psychologically what grooming is and the manipulation and how predators understand when people are looking for that validation , wanting to feel belonging , wanting to feel worthy , they can vibe off of it , and so they know just to instill . And even you know , as you said , like without lacking parenting , you could have had the parenting , all the love and everything else . These people have a charisma that is just spellbinding and they know how to break you down .
Speaker 1That's right . They go on the vulnerability of what you say . They watch . They watch everything that you do and if you say no your parents say no , where they're in is they find out where they're in is and where they can capturize you and give you that item or that affection that you need . And they soak that up so much till they have you . And then the next issue will come up and if they say no or yes , they latch onto the vulnerability that you're desiring , that you want in your own life . And that's why I said I've gone to where there's juice boxes , right . Poverty , starvation , hunger . It's gone down to even that little peanut going to school from grade kindergarten to grade seven . People are tapping into that vulnerability that kids are hungry . Today it's all over the map , no matter what status that you come from , Because it could be a very posh person and their parents said no , that they're not buying them the new iPhone 15 .
Speaker 1I'm just tapping into something that I know it's happening and guess what that boyfriend says oh yeah , I'll go get it for you . They don't want to buy it for you , I'll go get it for you . What is the undertone of that purchase ? Do you know that person . I've sat with many families , many moms and dads yelling at me , but not in a hatred way . This person was in my house , Joe , I fed them , they went trips with us . I'm like , yep , they were here for like not a year , like two . Yep , we went to hockey tournaments . We went to . Yep , they were watching . They were watching on how you take care of her , how what you do , and you don't say no and yes to her . And that person was saving her because they were getting and they're like we didn't even see it and it looks like a boyfriend-girlfriend situation that every teenager might go through , right , and they did it not for a month , not for two months , not six months , not for a year , but two , three years . And then that person , that young person , is so entwined with drugs and what they're doing activities
Child Safety and Empowerment Through Communication
Speaker 1.
Speaker 1Now , if people have go to school , go to jobs and still are trafficked , right , I know that we want to bubble wrap our children . I'm a grandma , so I'm all for the bubble wrap . I'm like , if there's a Rona around here , I'll buy all the bubble , but you know what it's . You have to think outside the box . You have to think outside the box . You have to think outside the box to keep all of our children safe .
Speaker 1And when I stand in front of any auditorium , I know that I'm Mohawk and people will call me Indigenous . I don't just stand for every child matters , for the orange shirt , I stand for every child matters , no matter where you are on the medicine wheel . I stand for that because I've had all denominations across the board come to me for help and saying is this happening ? Yep , there's some do's and don'ts that you have to find , Like I said , even from the frosh week .
Speaker 1I'm so happy that the universities and colleges , you know these people come to Ottawa to go to school and get an education for the next you know the dream that they've always dreamt about and get an education for the next . You know the dream that they've always dreamt about . And they get into one place in the city , you know , or outside the city , or latch onto a you know a person in the city that has taken them to a different denomination in their mind and what's going to happen in their world . And the families are not here . So I'm glad that everybody , I'm glad the education part is coming from , from resources , from from social workers to schools . It has to be in the schools when I hear schools say no , we're not talking about that then , guess what ?
Speaker 2you're putting people at risk all over the map now I know that this is activated because it's activated my parenting role , um . So not to um . You know , advocating is being aware . Yet , like you said , the bubble wrap if you do that to your child , you're not letting them be empowered of how to walk the earth , because you could pass away and there's nothing you can do when you pass away , so it's okay .
Speaker 2How do you empower your child child ? So what would be the do's and don'ts that you would give to parents ? For me , what I see is always having an open line of communication , like no matter how triggering , how , no matter how uncomfortable you got to take care of your own emotions , to have that open space that they can talk to you about anything . And when they start getting in their teens , that becomes even more difficult . Yet if you don't have that open dialogue of hearing things and not pouncing all the time on every little thing , you're not getting the information that is needed to hear about who's this mysterious person you're not talking to or whatnot . So to empower the parents not to get them to be helicopter parents and just I'm going to watch everything to be responsible for their fear what would be the empowering of the do's and don'ts and what can they do to facilitate empowering their children ?
Speaker 1The school board . You know , zero to six , right , they're like Joe , how can you talk about this at that age ? You have to . You just have to make sure that it's being , it's being talked to at their level . Go to their level , talk about things that are like , hypothetically , minecraft . I know that's a big thing , but the small okay , well then . Minecraft , the conversation Minecraft . I know that's a big thing . With the small , okay , well then , minecraft , the conversation around Minecraft . So they get their little minds around that High school .
Speaker 1You got to get right into the nick and cranny . I don't think there's no holds bar when they go to high school . I think after grade nine , the door is wide open and I think the parents have to really sit with themselves and say guess what ? I have to get comfortable with myself because anything can be coming to my door at any given time . It's fearful when it's the sevens and eights go to a high school and they're at a different , I think , the level of the school , but they're still in that domain . I think at step grade seven , we're going down . Like I said , we're going . The human trafficking is going down in age , I think grade seven . I think the doors need to open , wide open .
Speaker 1I still go to their level and their age of talking , but I rather having a bold conversation about what's happening in the world today than losing my child , right ? I always think of that . Like I think of that . I'd rather be blunt . I'm a very raw grandma . I'm a very raw mother , always have been , and as my two-year-old grandchildren grow , I've told the parents I'm never going to lie to them and if they ask me a bold question that they've heard on media , um , I'm telling them the truth . There's no , there's no fluff when it comes to grandma , this grandma anyways , um and yeah , have the school , have those conversations with their , with , with the parents , and be nosy , know where they're going , know who they are . I know it's , it's one-on-one parenting , but we have to be a little bit nosier .
Speaker 1Technology has taken over our children at any given time Not me , and you can . We could Google the word facts . 10,000 things are going to come up and we're thinking , just , I need a factual point of something . We have a , we have our own monto that we're looking for , but now , in our world today , facts don't mean the same thing as facts did back in the eighties . You know what I'm saying . We have to be that nosy parent .
Speaker 1I know I'm saying bubble wrap , but parents have to sit undercover in a library with really sweet looking men , boys and girls reading books . And grooms are in there , you know , in the library , because they go on the vulnerability . This kid must be lonely . They're in a library , they're reading a book , where the heck are their parents and they might be just there to get an education , to read up on dinosaurs or something like that . They're there . They're there , they're watching , they're always watching Men and women , young and old .
Speaker 1We have a heavy gang here in Ottawa . That's the 417 gang . That's from 8 years old to 18 , because they're protected under the criminal code , that they can't go to jail . So groomers are tapping into these young people to do their duties so that they can sit and be protected and get the young people to do it . And young people love items , they love materials . They'll do almost anything . If they can't get it from us , they get it from these people . So grooming happens at every single stage . It's everywhere . If anybody's listening to me , that's what I want . I want to be safe everywhere .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm considered a radical parent because I've been one where I've allowed the twins to see things and we talk about it , not sheltering them and hiding everything . It's like the way the Internet is and the way that they're intelligent to use the Internet . Trying to put all these blocks and trying to keep them away for me doesn't empower them to actually walk the earth and be like wait , I'm not going to be so shocked or I know to turn this off or that something comes up . I'm not immature about it like I have some empowerment in it and I understand it . This isn't for everybody . I just understand the way the world can be . I understand when you can get lonely , how people can take , take advantage . Like you said , here's all of a sudden there's some fentanyl in that bad boy or they put some alcohol or whatever there is , because of what they're leading you . I thank you for you know the work that you do .
Empowering Parents to Protect Children
Speaker 2Any parent that's listening . I understand that this can be really overwhelming because a lot of you I understand that this can be really overwhelming because a lot of you you know we don't want to see the evils because if we did , we'd never want our children to leave our home . Yet we don't even know that your children may not be leaving their home , but they're seeing evils on their PlayStation , on their phone . You know it's infiltrated a lot and the thing for me is , oh , you're not going to lock yourself in . It's about being empowered and advocating and knowing the do's and don'ts of not getting here , not going there .
Speaker 2If somebody's trying to do something , what do you do ? Do you yell and and look for help and everything else ? Um , and challenge things ? Uh , you know , and don't drink from this person , don't drink from that person . You're going to want to do certain things , to want to belong , and if you do do something , come to me , let me know about what it is so that I can help you navigate through that , because I was a teen at once .
Speaker 2I had my shit storms of mistakes that I went through .
Speaker 2So this isn't about going unscathed .
Speaker 2It's about safety and protection and that you know the way some of the these teens are doing of using like a one person as a joke , with the drugs and the beatings and stuff , like it's some kind of entertainment um is very frightening of where humanity is going and and how media is influencing that also , like that is a dialogue that I know people are like oh no , I don't , it's influencing .
Speaker 2It is definitely influencing and showing that there is no more filters and anything can go . Like when I see Toronto , I'm like that place is Gotham City now , like that's basically for me Gotham City , and don't think that that can't come here to Ottawa , because there are things that are happening in Ottawa that , because we're a politician town , it doesn't make the news because we have to uphold our embassies and our image and everything else . But I remember , you know , the sweeps that would happen downtown to get girls off the street when certain dignitaries would come . So there's things that are polished that they know about but they're not given the resources to actually help , which can be very infuriating .
Speaker 1JoJo , and we have to remember that this is a $160 billion industry . Welfare and ODSP are not paying for human trafficking , sex trafficking . Someone's paying for sex trafficking and human trafficking and it's a lot of money . So people with a lot of money are the ones that are doing the purchasing right . So even if we are in a politician town , it happens everywhere . So if parents want to get more educated and they're scared a little bit to step out of their comfort zone to listen to these conversations , tap into a resource or a health someone that's doing human trafficking , like at a well , a service that has a human trafficking person that's working for them , a resource . Have a conversation , phone them up and say can I just have a conversation about human trafficking and what should I do for my family in the news and notes to research out that so they can get that , they can have that conversation with their child now because your work is very heavy all day long .
Speaker 2Um the daytime work to the side , to the volunteer . What does your self-care look like , jojo ?
Speaker 1it's very powerful . I'm a very balanced person . I can I'm totally in tuned with my ceremonies that I have done to do my own healing in the last 51 years . I know where when I'm tapped out and I need to take a break . I know when I need to go to a hallowing ceremony . I always think of my , of my temple , my body , that I will start with my baby toe and I will go up to the top of my head and once it hits the top of my head , I need to recharge my batteries . I know when to sleep . I know when to take a breath . I know when to meditate . I know when to go pray . I know when to go walk . I've taken the last as it's progressed . I've taken the last five years to progress on how to keep balance and how to keep myself very , very well taken care of , from the top of my head to my baby toe .
Speaker 2And I can hear all the different modalities that you use so you really understand to serve your needs of all the capacities spiritually , physically , emotionally and psychologically all the capacities spiritually , physically , emotionally and psychologically . I just want to ask , on the point of when your heart is broken because of some of the information that you have to you know , process , or the people that you have to go , what are the steps that you use or what are the modalities that you use to be able to process that for yourself ?
Speaker 1It's helping somebody get out of a situation Now I'm taking this as the context as a person from 18 to 25 , out of a situation that they may not see that light at the end of the tunnel . When it's a child , my mind will go into a different , probably , format , because it's a child . Right , I'm a grandma at the end of the day . I can't take that hat off . I'm a mother at the end of the day . I'm a helper in my community . At the end of the day , protecting a child is I think that's my legacy in this world is to protect children , no matter where they come from .
Speaker 1I can't say that my face hasn't changed very , very much bolder when it is a baby and my baby head is under 18 . But my howling ceremonies are very , very powerful to where my nose has bled powerful to where my nose has bled . A migraine has formed right off the bat because I need to exit all of those negativities in my body and keep my energy to a very healthy color of my aura . Has it gone to that where my eyeballs have bled ? Yep , it has .
Speaker 1I've done a big tour in Arizona for the Hopi Nation , in Albuquerque , new Mexico , for the Indigenous people down there and that was probably the most powerful two weeks of my life that I probably will . I will always be there to help them , seeing this disgusting way of people's lives trying to torment our young people , our Indigenous people of the States and babies . So I had to let go of that negative energy in a very , very high ceremony and I had to come back down , where two to three days of silence was needed after coming back from a ceremony just to get myself back into my own Jojo space .
Speaker 2Thank you for giving that , because you know , another part where I do in my work is befriending anger and befriending rage , and that we can have a healthy relationship with it , not tabooing it , and it's not supposed to be here . It's like there's some things that you see in this world that needs rage and you need to express it in a healthy way to be able to release . So the howling is , you know , when my some of my clients , when they're going through really extreme experiences and there's flashbacks , I'm like take a pillow and start yelling in it . I know you don't want to offend people with that loud expression , but that pillow will help you do that expression , so let it release .
Speaker 1Absolutely . Where can the listeners , find you .
Speaker 1If they want to reach out to me they can call . You know , there's my daytime job . I'm at the Ottawa CES . I'm only one , jojo , there . The nighttime job is pretty . It's pretty on the DL because we only have certain people that know and it's Indigenous communities that really reach out for us . But my daytime job I'm always here to help , to ask questions . I'm the EDII worker . So equity , diversity , inclusion , it's questions and I can just give them resources . That's my whole domain . So anytime they can give me a call at the Ottawa CS , that's no problem .
Speaker 2Okay , I want to thank you for being such a powerful light in this world . You know being such a powerful light in this world and really holding space , being in that void and creating that bridge for so many to cross over , and you know being that safe space that even when they go back to you know the past , they still are accepted in the present to create another future . So thank you for that , jojo . It's really , really appreciated and this has been a very in-depth and I am so enriched by being in your presence and feeling your energy . So
Self-Care and Sharing Kindness
Speaker 2thank you so much .
Speaker 1Jojo , thank you so much for having me . I'm honored .
Speaker 2Please remember to be kind to yourself , absolutely .
Speaker 1And thank you .
Speaker 3Hey , you made it all the way here . I appreciate you and your time . If you found value in this conversation , please share it out . If there was somebody that popped into your mind , take action and share it out with them . It possibly may not be them that will benefit . It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation , so please take action and share out the podcast . You can find us on social media on Facebook , instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self .
Speaker 2And if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people come over on my website and enter a discovery call LiftOneSelfcom .
Speaker 3Until next time , please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself . You matter .
