Memorial March, Feb. 14 for missing/murdered Aboriginal women
By Shara JJ Cooper
The Boundary Métis Community Association and The Boundary Women’s Coalition are holding a Memorial March for our Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women
Feb. 14, at Noon in front of the Courthouse on Central Ave. Grand Forks – there will be smudging, prayers, drumming, singing and words before marching to the Women’s Resource Centre on Market Ave. Where there will be a slide show and a pot luck luncheon.
Our March is inspired by Vancouver Women’s Memorial March – below is information
“The first women’s memorial march was held in 1991 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories.
Twenty five years later, the women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women. Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Indigenous women disproportionately continue to go missing or be murdered with minimal to no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism, or colonialism.”
“Over the years, the Feb. 14th Women’s Memorial March has expanded to cities across these lands, as well as internationally. The March is an opportunity for all cities and communities to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters and remember the women who are still missing. We encourage all women to journey and heal together by organizing memorials on this day because women, especially Indigenous women, face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis. Violence against women is always unacceptable; every life is precious and we must continue to honor and work for justice for murdered and missing women.”
For more information call Tanis Carson, Boundary Métis Association Women’s Representative at 250-444-0334 or Myrna Logan, Vice president of the Boundary Métis Community Association at 250-442-5513
