Cultural Inheritances, Justice for Colten and Women's Memorial March

As seen on the corner of Main and Cordova on February 14th

For the past few years I've made it a personal priority to learn more about indigenous and First Nations issues in our country - the history, politics, art, culture, governance systems and everything in between. It's daunting. I went to school in an era that didn't have any of this in the curriculum - we learned about European history, a little ancient history, a little Canadian (settler colonialist history) history but never much about Canada's dark past when it comes to our real history. 

I've attended a number of forums and events and read a few books about residential schools and reconciliation. I also made sure to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action to see where they fit into my work and personal lives. I've also read the UNDRIP. Now we have a Ministry in government of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation! I went to a reception at the BC Cabinet and First Nations Summit, where elected officials, chiefs, business leaders and union leaders gathered to discuss indigenous issues with our provincial government representatives. There's so much to learn and the thing that resonates the most? The responsibility to create space and listen. Listen to stories, truths, challenges and step up when asked. 

A few things came up over the past few week or so and here's what I experienced and learned.

Inheritances and Reconciliation: A Dialogue with Amber Dean 

I trekked out to Douglas College in New West to participate in a workshop that would be led by Professor of Cultural and Gender Studies Amber Dean, from McMaster University and author of the book "Remembering Vancouver's Disappeared Women: Settler Colonialism and the Difficulty of Inheritances." The session took place in the Aboriginal Gathering Place - a beautiful space that has poles in all four directions and a Coast Salish welcoming figure in the room. The chairs were set up in a circle and I noticed a slideshow with text was cycling in the background. The slideshow were quotes from students in an anthropology course who read Dean's book. 

Our group was made up of faculty members from a variety of departments, students, and community members. 

We talked a lot about state violence and how settler colonialism underpins all systems of oppression and gender based violence in Canada. Heavy stuff. We talked about the different types of "missing" - by choice or by force. Trauma as contextual and always something to be aware of in the room and how difficult it is to acknowledge is a classroom setting because it can be a label in of itself. 

We talked about the difference between the words "settler" and "immigrant" and how they have very different meanings. 

Canada's identity as apologists has been built into this narrative - so are the apologies from the Federal government tokenism or are they genuine? Are we just doing it because we are conditioned to say sorry? 

I left with more questions than answers but the types of questions that make you search for truth. I was really excited to go back downtown in the evening to hear more from Professor Dean in the context of the February 14th Women's Memorial March.

Inheriting What Lives On - SFU

After the workshop at Douglas, I went back downtown to SFU Woodwards to attend a community lecture by Professor Dean. 

The lecture was held in solidarity with the February 14th Women's Memorial March (WMM) on the DTES and we were lucky to have two of the organizers of the march as speakers in addition to Dr. Dean. 

Carol Martin, a victim services worker at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, is a well known figure on the DTES and has been on the organizing committee for the Women's Memorial March for years. Her approach to this work is heart first, and it shows. She's so  generous in sharing her knowledge and stories. She's also very honest. In regards to the National Enquiry - she's skeptical that the government is going to do anything about MMIWG.  When she got emotional, she said her tears were of gratefulness and happiness because looking around that room she knew that there are lots of great people out there who cares and that awareness and education is finally hitting home with people. 

She described the WMM and how it's organized. The families will have time in the morning to gather to tell stories of their lost/stolen sisters. The march will then go through the DTES, making stops at various places to stop and honour some of the last places some of the women were seen. She made the point to remind us all that these women aren't "just working girls." They are mothers, sisters, aunties, grandmothers, friends, comrades, warriors. "Everything that is happening to our scared givers of life all comes down to our land." It wasn't long ago that I learned how different land rights are across the country. BC occupies unceded territory, which is just a fancy way of saying "stolen land." The theft and destruction of land continues to this day so add to the oppressive colonial systems in place to keep indigenous peoples down, it's very difficult for anything to change. Land rights and violence are connected as well. What is violence? State? Organizational? Person to person? What happens when you throw money at violence against women organizations? Who is going to find them? How do you deal with the losses?

Carol sees the worst of it and yet she comes to her work heart first, with the goal of hope to ensure that the most vulnerable women are not pushed into more vulnerable situations.

Myrna Cranmer, organizer for the WMM has the difficult job of keeping the list of the MMIWG and every year it's getting longer, not shorter. She was honest and frank. Women are being thrown out of buildings or found on pig farms. She said, it's time to stop being nice when indigenous women and girls are being killed and hunted. Powerful. 

Professor Glen Coulthard (UBC Political Science) was our moderator and introduced Dr. Dean. 

Her talk was such a great example of a scholar bringing a topic to life for discussion, not trying to be the expert but rather set a context for discourse. She started off by recognizing Carol's wise words from her talk at the beginning of the evening:

"Don't be the person that the system wants you to be." 

She opened with a proclamation that she wasn't an expert on the DTES and that her scholarship was about asking questions - starting with the public record of violence - who matters and who doesn't? 

Community based research is something I've come across a few times over the past few years. Recognizing that community knowledge IS knowledge is important especially when so many unrepresented groups haven't had the opportunity to have their truths heard. In this context Prof. Dean simply said that the struggle to resist settler colonialism should be led by indigenous peoples and we (settlers) need to step up when we are asked.

Territorial acknowledgements aren't enough for true reconciliation - not all is forgiven just because we've acknowledged the ancestral territories for which we occupy. Because these things are becoming rote, it's being seen as Vanessa Watts dubs, the "corporatization of reconciliation." 

Her talk was then broken down into three parts - who am I? who are you? what are we doing here?

1992 - the first Women's Memorial March. People's lives are structured by differences. Not just identities but for things like access to affordable housing and food, healthcare, violence and state violence.

"Their Spirits Live Within Us" marks the presence of the women's spirits not just their absence of bodies. The march isn't just about violence but about resistance to that violence and that's manifested itself in many ways for the past 24 years. In 2002 there was the occupation of Woodward's - Hamilton is looking to this particular action now. 

These women lived.The urgency to focus on their lives not just their deaths is palpable and can been seen in the many memorials throughout the march - whether it's in the photos and signs family members hold. Or maybe the stone marker at Main and Alexander.

Q&A

Someone asked Prof. Dean an interesting question about how she paid such close attention to the language she used in the book. She was careful to use colonizers language against itself to be more accessible to the community she was writing about. For example, saying that women are being disappeared, isn't grammatically correct but what it does do, it puts the onus in the right place. Both Carol and Myrna praised Prof. Dean for not becoming the spokesperson for the DTES and valued her approach because it means that people are talking about the issue. 

Such a moving and interesting night - one I won't forget for a long long time.

Justice for Colten Rally - CBC

While attending the reconciliation events the previous day, the verdict in Colten Boushie's murder came out. An all white jury found the white man not guilty of murder. This guy got away with murdering a young indigenous man. There has been so much commentary on this I have nothing to add. 

It was so upsetting - how can we live in country where this can happen? After spending the day talking about proviliedge and allyship, I was at a loss. I saw on facebook that rallies and vigils were being planned across the country so the very least I could do was show up. My heart breaks for his friends and family. It's just so sad.

I walked down to the CBC Plaza and stood in solidarity with indegnoues people and settler allies alike. The speakers were amazing. Calls to action, personal stories, songs filled with rage, sorrow and love. At the end of the speeches before the march one of the speakers asked those of us with privilege who may have some power to use it.  I commit to do what I can...

Women's Memorial March - DTES

February 14th 2018 marked the 24th year of the Women's Memorial March on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and my 3rd time marching. I found my pal Sarah and her dog Roni and waited to march down the streets of the DTES to mourn and honour the murdered and missing indigenous women and girls of Vancouver. 

There were many choruses of Women's Warrior Song. Eagles kept circling the crowd which meant eruptions of cheers and and whistles. We stopped at various points along the route to recognize some of the last places some of the women were seen. These tributes were made by relatives, remembering who they were as mothers, sisters, aunties, friends and women. We said a short prayer for them and marched on.

There were many memorial quilts - because testaments to the lives of the women who've left us much too early. 

We ran into our friends Shelley, our Aboriginal Rep on the Executive Council of the BC Fed and Kass, Director of the Human Rights portfolio at the BC Fed. Shelley let me bang her drum, which was awesome. We stopped to talk to a group of young people who turned out to be students of a teacher friend of ours. 

As we walked we talked about how we can meaningfully incorporate reconciliation into the labour movement and what that looks like for our unions. 

It was an intense day - we remembered, we mourned and called for justice to end gender based based and the disappearing of our indigenous sisters in Canada.