Why We March Each February 14
Monday, February 14 marks the 31st annual Women’s Memorial March.
Now drawing thousands of people to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside each February, the annual gathering honours the lives of missing and murdered women, and all women and gender-diverse people who have lost their lives in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on unceded Coast Salish Territories and across the country. Friends, family and allies gather each year to share in collective grief, to remember those missing or murdered and to commit to pursuing justice.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
The Women’s Memorial March began in 1992 after a Coast Salish woman was murdered on Powell Street. Her name is not spoken out of respect for the wishes of her family.
Since, the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country has been described as a national crisis. According to a 2014 RCMP report, around 1,200 Indigenous women were murdered or went missing from 1980 to 2012. However, many people believe the reality is much worse. Canada’s former Minister for the Status of Women, Patty Hajdu, estimates the number was closer to 4,000.
Organizers of the event are “women and non-binary people because Indigenous women, girls, Two Spirit and trans people face physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence on a daily basis.” The gathering also acts as a protest against racism, gender-based violence, patriarchy and gender inequity and hopes to change the misrepresentation and inaccurate labelling of Indigenous women in public discourse and media.
As Dara Culhane wrote in her article ‘Their Spirits Live within us: Aboriginal Women in Downtown Eastside Vancouver Emerging into Visibility’ in American Indian Quarterly: “We are Aboriginal Women. Givers of life. We are Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Aunties and Grandmothers... We stand on our Mother Earth and we demand respect.”
Women’s Memorial March 2022
Where: At the intersection of Main St and Hastings St, then moving through the neighbourhood, stopping at locations where women and gender diverse people were last seen.
When: Monday February 14, 2022
A ceremony for family and friends begins at 10:30am, the general public is welcome to join at 12pm. At approximately 2pm, the gathering will stop again at Main St and Hastings St for speeches by community members, followed by a healing circle and drummers at Oppenheimer Park around 3pm, and a community feast at the Japanese Language Hall from 4-5 pm.
The Women’s Memorial March takes place on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səlil̓wətaʔɬ nations.
Who: All are welcome to attend.
Visit this page for more information, including protocols, ways to donate and to volunteer.
