29th Annual Women’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Family and community members gathered in remembrance on February 14, 2020 at 10:30am, sang, smudged, drummed then marched together at noon from the Carnegie (Main and Hastings).

This happens every year on Unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories.

This is an event led by indigenous women since it began in on February 14, 1992 . The first women’s memorial march was held in 1992 in response to the murder of a woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories.

The women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women and all women’s lives lost in the Downtown Eastside. Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Indigenous women disproportionately continue to go missing or be murdered with minimal to no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism, or colonialism.

Beyond defining the level of violence against these women as a "Canadian genocide," recommending official language status for Indigenous languages and calling for "a guaranteed annual livable income for all Canadians," the commissioners are also recommending sweeping reforms to the justice system and policing in this country, including stiffer penalties for men who carry out spousal or partner abuse.

Since the national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and the final report in September 2019: Reclaiming Power and Place, the recommendations have been slow to take effect.

We hear from matriarchs and warriors, allies and politicians in this beautiful piece.