Deborah Parker didn’t want to be the face of an issue.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
But, the Washington woman of Tulalip and Yaqui Native descent badly wanted further protections for Alaska Native and Native American women to be included in the federal Violence Against Women Act.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I said, ‘I’ll be the face,’” Parker said with emotion Friday at a Juneau summit to raise awareness of domestic violence, “It’s not what I wanted to do.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Still, in 2012, Parker shared her story of surviving physical and sexual violence to help humanize the stomach-churning statistics of violence against women, at a press conference in Washington, D.C., featuring multiple U.S. senators.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
[Empire Live: Panel raises awareness of domestic violence<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t More than 80 percent of Native American and Alaska Native women experience violence in their lifetime and more than 56 percent experience sexual violence, according to the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “I am a Native American statistic,” Parker said in that 2012 speech. “I am a survivor of sexual and physical violence.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t