Sharing Their Stories: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Quebec

Feb 13, 2013

Sharing Their Stories: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Quebec

It is estimated that over 700 Indigenous women have gone missing and been murdered in Canada since 1980. The issues of violence against Indigenous women is often thought to be an issue that takes place just in the prairie provinces or in BC along the highway of tears, but violence against Indigenous women takes place in every province, every city, and every town across Turtle Island. It takes place in and around the communities surrounding Montreal, Quebec. This hour long radio documentary tells the stories of 4 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Quebec; Shannon Alexander, Maisy Odjick, Tiffany Morrison, and Gladys Tolley. The families of these women all tell stories with similar themes; police neglect, lack of media attention, lack of support and resources available to them, conducting searches themselves, and of the failure of the government to address the overarching issue of violence and human rights abuses committed on the bodies of Aboriginal women across the country.

Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (Missing Justice) invites you and yours to attend, spread the word about, and participate in this year’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women on Thursday February 14th, 6pm at St. Laurent metro.

The first women’s memorial march was held in 1991 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. 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.

Twenty-two years later, the women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women.

This year, Montreal holds it’s 4th Annual Memorial March.

****There will be a bus this year from Kahnawake, and back, organized by Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services. The bus will leave the KSCS Parking lot at 4:30 pm and return at approx 9 pm. Start (drop off) at St Laurent metro and pick up (to return home) at Parc des Ameriques- St Laurent and Rachel street.***

If you can’t be there in person, tune into CKUT 90.3FM or www.ckut.ca. CKUT will broadcast live from the event from 6-7pm. You can find the podcast here after.

Please contact us for more information and promotional material.

With guests:

-Buffalo Hat Singers
-Warrior Minded (Joey Shaw)
-Ellen Gabriel
-Anik Sioui
-Nina Sigalwoitz, Chez Doris
-Alexa Conradi, Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ)
-Bridget Tolley, Families of Sisters in Spirit
-Lucy Anacleto, YWCA
-Mirha-Soleil, ASTTeQ
-Idle No More

and more….!