Indigenous advocate Aminah Ghaffar fights for change

PEMBROKE, N.C. -- For Aminah Ghaffar, Indigenous advocacy is a crucial part of her identity.

"I have always been passionate about serving Indigenous people, making sure that Indigenous people are brought into spaces they're not normally talked about," she says.

When she was in college, Ghaffar was shocked to learn about the murders of three separate Indigenous women on her own street. Realizing that the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women was affecting not just her own community, but even more specifically, her own neighbors, Ghaffar felt called to action.

On November 21st, Ghaffar gave a speech at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke for their Annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women March and Ceremony.

"Each and every one of us here today has the ability to attack this issue head on, to have a direct impact and the way that you can do that is just as simple as looking to the person to your left, looking at the person on your right, and making sure that you're being a good person to whoever is standing next to you," Ghaffar told the crowd.

Afterward, Ghaffar joined attendees in the march across campus to express solidarity with victims, their families and their advocates, and to emphasize the community's fight for more visibility around this oft-overlooked epidemic.

Visibility that, Ghaffar hopes, increased media attention will also help generate.

""Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae" is really important because one of the biggest parts of this issue is visibility, so I think the more people see stories like this, the more people become aware and the more people care about the issue," she explains.

"While I'm not a part of this documentary, I am a part of the fight to advocate on a local and state level for legislation and laws that attack this issue head on. And I continue to make sure that the victims in my community, their stories are heard and their family's voices are heard."

"Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae" is now streaming on @Hulu.

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