4th Annual Indignous Women's Memorial March
Indigenous women face among the highest rates of violence in Canada
The 4th Annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will be held on Sunday, February 12th, 2012, we will gather at 11:00 outside Our Place at 919 Pandora Ave. At noon we will march down Pandora to Government and on to Thunderbird Park. People are invited to gather at Thunderbird Park around 1pm for an open memorial event with speeches, songs, food, and prayers. This is a family event and people of all ages are welcome. There will be vans to support Elders or those requiring assistance along the march as well as bus tickets.
The Memorial March originated 21 years ago, on February 14, in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The march calls attention to the disproportionately high numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women from this neighbourhood. Today, this march has come to represent a time for remembering, grieving, honouring, and seeking answers for Indigenous communities and their allies across Canada. This march is a time to stand in solidarity with the families whose loved ones have gone missing and been murdered from Vancouver Island and beyond.
According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s 2010 report, there are over 600 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Of these deaths, nearly half of the murder cases remain unsolved. Rates of violence against Indigenous women are highest in British Columbia with 28% of the cases of missing and murdered women occurring here. As this is a memorial, not a protest, we ask people refrain from bringing banners, flags, or leaflets. People are invited to wear red, or regalia, and to bring drums.
Violence against Indigenous women implicates all people who make home in today’s “Canada.” This year, let us walk to honour those who are missing and murdered, and say that today, this violence must stop with us.
For more information please contact us:
VIPIRG Contact: Rebecca Taylor
For Media Contact: Sinead Charbonneau
Tel: 250-891-1942
Email: feb.14.memorialmarch@gmail.com
Links
Missing, slain women honoured at annual Victoria march (Derek Spalding, Times Colonist, February 12, 2012)
Join our facebook group: Stolen Sisters Memorial March
