03 May National Day of Awareness and Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People
Watch our Ambassadors lead the Womens Warrior Song
Thursday, May 5th is the National Day of Awareness and Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people. A the SLCC, we wear this button in solidarity to honour the lives that have been cut short by violence. We wear these masks, made by a Squamish Nation artist and entrepreneur, with permission from the women we work with. Sacred, feminine, powerful, funny, and courageous members of the Squamish Nation and Lil’wat Nation.
In communities all over Canada, women are going missing, clean drinking water is a luxury, and Indigenous youth are dying by suicide at a rate 3 times higher than our national average. In Canada, Indigenous women and girls are five times more likely to experience violence, are more than three times likely to be killed by a stranger, and 88% of murdered and missing Indigenous women’s are mothers. Our colonial governments ignored the escalating rate of missing Indigenous women. It took the cover-page-splash of a serial killer to wake us all up. It took science to prove the loss of 215 children to acknowledge what our people have mourned for 150 years of the loss of our children – separated from their families, their culture, and their livelihood, their lives.
We humbly stand in solidarity and we will speak up in the face of bigotry, stereotyping, racism, and white fragility (including our own) with curiosity, love, and a hope to move forward together, changed. In a country that wears its individuality and separation from the USA as a patriotic patch, and prides itself on world-famous politeness. In Canada. In 2020. In 2021. Cause of death was murder by words, neglect, and discrimination. This has to stop.
Join us at 11am on Thursday May 5th for the Women’s Warrior Song on the SLCC Mezzanine Patio by the Salish Forest to honour all the Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people and their families whose lives were lost, or have been and are affected by violence.
Wear your solidarity and support of MMIWG2S with love and strength for those lost or affected. The SLCC is offering MMIW buttons at our front desk by donation, or purchase a mask at our Gift Shop.
If you need to talk to someone, The KUU-US Crisis Line Society provides a First Nations and Indigenous-specific crisis line available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, toll-free from anywhere in British Columbia. KUU-US Crisis Line can be reached toll-free at 1-800-588-8717 kuu-uscrisisline.com
To learn more visit https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/
Kairos Canada – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – About the MMIWG InfoHub
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
The Native Women’s Association of Canada – MMIWG & Violence Prevention
What Their Stories Tell Us: Research findings from the Sisters In Spirit initiative
Indigenous Women’s Healing Center
Native Women’s Association of Canada
The YWCA Crisis shelter & Residence Emergency Shelter