I felt like I couldn’t breathe, eat or sleep and that the 10 % he gave me was what I lived for. I was raised to be an empowered and outspoken young woman. After an on-and-off abusive relationship that started in my teens, I felt I lived two separate lives. I experienced psychological and physical abuse, but I kept going to hide the shame and faith that it would get better. On top of this, I experienced structural and abusive racism because of my Sami heritage when I moved to another city to study. Eventually, I felt I had completely lost myself and saw a shadow of the woman I knew to be. See how a conversation with my mother helped me realize I had experienced violence. I was in trauma therapy a week later, which started my healing journey. Learn how I accepted that this had happened to me without taking away the empowered woman I carried inside. I re-connected even closer to my Sami heritage and started speaking out to raise awareness. Both about the hidden abuse against women in our culture and the abuse our cultural experiences in society.