Erin Crickett
“I have the 100-year-plan in my head of wanting the world in seven generations to be a world without sexual violence.”
NAME Erin Crickett ROLE Sexual Assault Centre Hamilton and Area (SACHA) public education co-ordinator NOTE Responses edited for length
Q. What do you do at SACHA?
A. When I describe my job to people, I tell them it’s my job to prevent sexual violence in Hamilton. I present to over 5,000 people a year. It’s Grade 9s, it’s police, it’s folks who are studying to become doctors, it’s faith groups. I’ll go anywhere I’m invited. I present a lot on consent and bystander intervention and how to support survivors.
We do the work at SACHA from an intersectional lens, meaning we’re working to end all forms of violence. We’re working to end all sorts of oppressions. I run Take Back the Night with a committee of 15 awesome activists. I also do media. Q. How did you end up working at SACHA?
A. The story of me ending up working as SACHA is very much: Wait, what, how did that happen? I did not have a successful time in high school — and I like mentioning that because I work with a lot of high school students now who are struggling and I want them to know that there is life after high school. I barely graduated. I went to university, but I didn’t complete. I was studying environmental science ... ended up working at Environment Canada in emissions research and measurement, measuring exhaust in cars. It was really exciting and powerful work, but I couldn’t stay there because of sexism.
I went to work for Frontier College. They would put you in the place where people needed help with literacy skills. So I worked on a tobacco farm with migrant labourers from St. Lucia. I was eventually placed in B.C. and I got to work with Québécois fruit pickers in the Okanagan Valley. I ended up dog sledding after that. My favourite job, after SACHA, has been working at the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater as a deckhand and education apprentice. I got to help with the sailing of a traditionally rigged, 163-foot sloop, and I got to live aboard.
I came back to southern Ontario and ended up volunteering at a shelter (and eventually working there). I got into public education by co-ordinating the neighbours, friends and families campaign — a bystander intervention campaign around domestic violence in Guelph. Q. What does the spotlight on sexual harassment and violence right now mean to you?
A. It means we’re having a moment. I don’t know what the moment will look like in two months or five years.
I have the 100-year-plan in my head of wanting the world in seven generations to be a world without sexual violence. I’m hoping that we use this moment to push forward and that it becomes more than just #metoo — which is incredible — and moves to “I will.” And it becomes more than a long list of names of men who’ve abused their power and is pushed to what happens to those men now, what actions are they going to take, what does accountability look like?
I look back a lot and I get a lot of inspiration from the feminists who came before me.
I’ve become so much more tactical with how I do my work. I don’t waste my time talking to brick walls; I talk to folks who have genuine discussions where we’re both coming with open hearts.
Most of our movements have come from the most marginalized. I want to remember those folks in our movements. They are quite often forgotten and our movement is quite often whitewashed. Q. What is Hamilton doing right? A. I love working in Hamilton because Hamilton has a strong labour history. When folks see stuff that’s (messed) up, they step up. There is not a lot of apathy. They see problems and they see opportunity for action. Q. What does Hamilton need?
A. Hamilton needs that average everyday person to not look away. Knowing that there are survivors in your life, there absolutely are. If no one has come forward to you, that’s because they haven’t felt comfortable or they haven’t had the opportunity yet. You have people who are affected by this and you have a responsibility to take action every day.
And also, that action doesn’t have to be massive. You don’t have to start a national campaign. You can do tiny little things like asking for a hug, like asking for permission to take someone’s photograph, interrupting a sexist joke. The most marginalized folks have been putting themselves at risk for hundreds of years to make change. I want to see folks with more power putting themselves at risk.