Refrains of the Women's Warrior Song swelled in Sechelt Sunday morning, as more than 250 people marched for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).
“Today, we bring awareness to the community about what's going on and what continues to go on. This is something people don't really like to talk about, but it needs to be talked about,” Alfonso (Sito) Salinas told the crowd gathered at the intersection in front of Sechelt municipal hall.
It was shíshálh Nation's second annual march to honour and raise awareness of MMIWG and culminated in a gathering at Hackett Park, with speakers, songs, vendors, dancing and food.
Family members of Cheryl Ann Joe, a 26-year-old shíshálh woman murdered in Vancouver 33 years ago, whose brutal death gave rise to what would become the annual Women's Memorial March every Feb. 14 in Vancouver and across the country, recounted their fight for justice for the mother, cousin, sister and auntie who they described as a “very, very loving young woman." Family members called for systemic change in how perpetrators of such crimes are handled, describing how families are re-traumatized as convicted murderers come up for parole.
Speakers called on newly re-elected MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country Patrick Weiler, to work on changing the system.
Annually, May 5 is the national day of awareness for MMIWG, also known as Red Dress Day. It’s inspired by the work of Jamie Black, a Métis artist who started the REDress project, hanging red dresses to symbolize missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
Between 2009 and 2021, Indigenous women and girls were six times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women and girls according to Statistics Canada.
Calvin Joe-Mayes, one of Cheryl Ann Joe’s three sons, shared statistics from the Assembly of First Nations: “Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women. Yet, Indigenous people make up only 4.3 per cent of the population of Canada. Indigenous women are twice as likely to experience violence from their current or former partner. A little more than 30 per cent of Indigenous people experience violence from their current or ex partner, a proportion twice as high as non-Indigenous people. Indigenous women are more likely to experience physical and sexual assault than non Indigenous women. Fifty six per cent of Indigenous women have suffered physical assault, and 46 per cent have experienced sexual assault. By comparison, about one third of non Indigenous women have suffered these assaults in their lifetimes,” he shared.
In the decades since his mother was murdered and the march in Vancouver started, more than 900 names have been added to the list of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, said Joe-Mayes.
“I have two young daughters of my own, and this is still happening today,” said Joe-Mayes. “Women and girls are going missing and being murdered, this has to stop. We need hope for the future.”
While Cheryl Ann Joe's memory was prominent within the gathering, her murder resonates in the experiences of Indigenous peoples across the country. People from nations elsewhere, including Squamish, Kitwanga and Tla'amin, spoke to the effects of MMIWG and to their own relatives and loved ones murdered, and the need for change.
Deanna Lewis from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw spoke of the dark, dead-end roads to Indigenous communities that lack public transit. “We're at risk every day our people hitchhike, and it's a very scary road. But if you look at any Indigenous community, they have those very dark roads and it's by design they’re like that.”
In 2019, the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls said the violence it found amounted to a race-based genocide of Indigenous peoples. “This genocide has been empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools and breaches of human and Indigenous rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations,” said the report.
shíshálh lhe hiwus yalxwemult (Chief Lenora Joe), a cousin of Cheryl Ann's, remembered their youth together and said the march was important, that she was proud to be there with the crowd gathered, but called for greater change.
“There is a greater community out there that also needs to come in and help with acknowledgement of this very, very serious crisis that is happening across Canada, across North America, across the world,” she said.
“As leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that policies and laws are changed to protect our young women,” she said. “We know that our young women are still being challenged. They're still being abused, and we need to make it stop.”
While holding her grand-daughter's hand, yalxwemult said to protect her, she needs to talk about these matters openly. “I have to tell her what is happening today. I have to point out the injustice. I have to show her that it's alive and well, and that the only way that we can stop it is if we come together and make that change.”
The Hackett Park portion of the event, centred on the stage beneath the cedar trees, included dancing from youth and songs.
Members of the Crazy Indian Brotherhood, a group dedicated to giving back to community, provided the food –– having been at the park since 8 a.m. setting up. “We usually go to the shelter to feed the people there, but I felt it's also important to feed the people who come to these big events, so the food is free,” said Sito.
Indigenous artists and vendors sold goods, in what Donna Tack, Wellness Centre Manager for shíshálh Nation called, “another way that you can use your wallet to show your support.”
And Elders were doing cedar brushing to brush the heavy energy the day brought up so that people may heal.
Sito, another family member of Cheryl Ann's, who guided the drumming and singing of the march, thanked the crowd. “I know it's a lot of heaviness today, but it's a part of our healing,” he said. “I'm grateful that we're all here together and having that healing together.”
Events were held across the province and the country May 5, for Red Dress Day.
