Hide everything’: Report finds silence prevails in N.W.T. sexual assaults – CBC

Sep 11, 2016

‘There are strong repercussions for women who speak about it,’ says author Lani Cooke

“Elders have worked to keep sexual assaults secret. It has always been ‘Hush. Hush.'”

“The community attitude is to hide everything.”

Those are quotes from women and service providers who took part in a two-year study looking at the needs of women who have been sexually assaulted in the Northwest Territories.

Lani Cooke, author of the new report Hush Hush No More, was commissioned by the YWCA to work on the project. She spoke with 10 women from five N.W.T. communities who have been sexually assaulted.