All too often, family and friends of missing or murdered aboriginal women feel that their loved one has been forgotten.
As Flin Flon area residents demonstrated last Friday, Feb. 12, that simply isn’t the case.
Twenty-plus people
joined the Women’s Memorial March down Main Street, drawing attention to – and demanding action for – hundreds of missing and murdered aboriginal women across Canada.
“This memorial march is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters, remember the women who are still missing and to dedicate ourselves to justice,” organizer Colleen Arnold told marchers.
Arnold stood at Pioneer Square, four red dresses hanging in a tree behind her. Those and other dresses strung up along Main Street each represented a missing or murdered aboriginal woman.
Arnold, herself an aboriginal woman, told the marchers that young
First Nations women are five times more likely than other Canadian women to die as a result of violence.
“What is most important is that these women had families and friends that loved them,” she said, “as well as an entire community [left] in mourning over a staggering number of lost [loved] ones.”
The Women’s Memorial March began in Vancouver in 1991 and has since spread to other communities, with Flin Flon joining in 2014.
The red dresses were added this year as part of the REDress Project, which aims to further raise public awareness.
“Education is a key to help people understand and have more sensitivity around the issue, and maybe in that way it will change something,” Arnold said.
“As a community we need to stand together and fight for justice in honour of these women.
“The heinous and unimaginable violence that has taken the lives of so many has left a deep void in our hearts. We continue to call for a national and international public inquiry that is led by family and community members and that centres our experiences, need for healing, and quest for answers, concrete action and meaningful justice.”
