Missing is an opera set in Vancouver’s downtown eastside and on Highway 16, also known as the Highway of Tears; it tells the story of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and, according to Stó: lō mezzo soprano Marion Newman, that’s a story that needs to continue to be told.
“Probably [Missing is] one of the operas that I think is the most important to be happening again and again and again,” says Newman. “I am thrilled to be apart of it.”
Missing—which is sung in both English and Gitksan—is being presented for the second time in Victoria. It will also travel to Regina and will also be performed for the first time in Prince George, where the Gitksan people are heavily represented, and where most of the story takes place. When Newman first sang the text two years ago, 1,200 women were said to be missing or murdered. Today that number is closer to 3,000.
“It felt shocking when I first saw that number on the page,” says Newman.
Newman says that people need to put themselves in the position of those involved and to realize that the missing women are people that are cared about.
“These are our mothers, sisters, our aunts, our friends, and they matter,” she says. “They deserve to be looked for, to be protected. This is a problem that could be solved, and we need to demand that it be solved, so we are safe.”
One recent political change—the provincial government introducing legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—is something that would make Dr. Wilson, who Newman performs as in the opera, have a bit of hope.
“That is one of the things she’s aiming for,” says Newman. “That would be definitely a victory day.”
Missing
7 pm Friday, November 1 and 7 pm Saturday, November 2
$15 student tickets, The Baumann Centre (925 Balmoral Road)
rmts.bc.ca
Correction: A previous version of this article said that Missing was going to be presented in Vancouver; it is not. We apologize for the mistake.