NEWS RELEASE posted on December 4, 2009 by dawn

Honouring Missing and Murdered Women: Their Spirits Live Within Us

Letter from the February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee (Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories) regarding National Coordination

by February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee

December 2009 - The Annual Women's Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Women began in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Coast Salish Territories, when in January 1991 a woman was murdered on Powell Street. This woman’s murder was the catalyst that moved women into action. Out of a sense of hopelessness, grief, and anger came an annual march on Valentine's Day to express community and caring for all women in the Downtown Eastside.

Nineteen years later, the march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women in this neighbourhood. The heinous and unimaginable violence that have taken the lives of so many of our beloved sisters has left a deep void in our hearts. Every year the list of women going missing also increases. This is why we gather to mourn and remember our sisters - by listening to their family members, by taking over the streets, and through spiritual ceremonies.

Over the years, this march has expanded to cities across Canada, as well as internationally. Increasing numbers of deaths of marginalized women, especially Indigenous women across the world, continues to leave family, friends, and loved ones with an overwhelming sense of loss. Over 3000 women are known to have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since 1980. Last year, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued this statement: “Hundreds of cases involving aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention.”

The February 14th Women’s Memorial 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 face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis. Violence against women in always unacceptable; every life is precious and we must continue to honour and work for justice for murdered and missing women.

*** If you are organizing a memorial please email us the details at marlene.george@vancouver.ca so we can maintain communication, compile the information, and build strength in our coordinated efforts. Thank you all for your support and commitment.