For more than two decades, the Women’s Memorial March has taken place every Valentine’s Day in downtown Vancouver. The march evolved, becoming the catalyst for a movement that has since reached cities across the globe.
In Victoria, the fourth annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will take place Sunday, February 12.
Spokeswoman Sinead Carbonneau says that Vancouver’s event is well established and can count on attendance every February 14. In an effort to match Vancouver’s involvement, organizers in Victoria are keen to allow those with jobs and children to attend.
“We realized that what was really important for us was being able to allow families to bring children to the march,” says Charbonneau, a University of Victoria graduate in women’s studies. “We see having children at the march as essential.”
With the Missing Women Inquiry making international headlines, it becomes even more important to generate awareness about acts of violence towards indigenous women. According to Stolen Sisters, an advocate group for indigenous women, 28 percent of all acts of violence against indigenous women across Canada occur in BC.
“I think about how up in arms the public was over the HST reform, and now we’re talking about how indigenous women face the highest rates of violence in Canada in British Columbia,” says Charbonneau. “BC is literally the most violent place for indigenous women to be. And we’re having an inquiry right in the largest city and so few people are taking account of it.”
Charbonneau sees the Missing Women Inquiry as something of a failure when it comes to acknowledging the importance of indigenous families and community voices. But she also recognizes how significant and important the inquiry is as a symbolic move.
“Something like this needed to happen,” she says, “and I also feel that this inquiry has brought at least the general outline to the broader Canadian public, and I think that’s really important.”
She also sees the Memorial March as crucial, not just as an awareness-generating community event, but also as a way for urban First Nations to combat feelings of isolation by gathering with a unified community.
“In the last few years we’ve had hundreds of people,” says Charbonneau. “There are few indigenous events in Victoria that gather that kind of response. As a Metis person, I can speak to how unique and empowering it is to be in the streets with hundreds of other indigenous people and our allies. Just being there together is something that I remember when I’m struggling with the isolation a lot of urban native people feel.”
Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Starting at Our Place (919 Pandora Ave.)
Sunday, February 12, 11 am