{"id":2312,"date":"2012-02-10T10:07:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T18:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2012-02-22T12:39:45","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T20:39:45","slug":"web-exclusive-local-group-prepares-for-missing-women-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/02\/10\/web-exclusive-local-group-prepares-for-missing-women-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Group prepares for missing women march"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than two decades, the Women\u2019s Memorial March has taken place every Valentine\u2019s Day in downtown Vancouver. The march evolved, becoming the catalyst for a movement that has since reached cities across the globe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Missing women marches in Vancouver draw huge crowds (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Victoria, the fourth annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will take place Sunday, February 12.<\/p>\n

Spokeswoman Sinead Carbonneau says that Vancouver\u2019s event is well established and can count on attendance every February 14. In an effort to match Vancouver\u2019s involvement, organizers in Victoria are keen to allow those with jobs and children to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that what was really important for us was being able to allow families to bring children to the march,\u201d says Charbonneau, a University of Victoria graduate in women\u2019s studies. \u201cWe see having children at the march as essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Missing Women Inquiry making international headlines, it becomes even more important to generate awareness about acts of violence towards indigenous women. According to Stolen Sisters, an advocate group for indigenous women, 28 percent of all acts of violence against indigenous women across Canada occur in BC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about how up in arms the public was over the HST reform, and now we\u2019re talking about how indigenous women face the highest rates of violence in Canada in British Columbia,\u201d says Charbonneau. \u201cBC is literally the most violent place for indigenous women to be. And we\u2019re having an inquiry right in the largest city and so few people are taking account of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charbonneau sees the Missing Women Inquiry as something of a failure when it comes to acknowledging the importance of indigenous families and community voices. But she also recognizes how significant and important the inquiry is as a symbolic move.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like this needed to happen,\u201d she says, \u201cand I also feel that this inquiry has brought at least the general outline to the broader Canadian public, and I think that\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also sees the Memorial March as crucial, not just as an awareness-generating community event, but also as a way for urban First Nations to combat feelings of isolation by gathering with a unified community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last few years we\u2019ve had hundreds of people,\u201d says Charbonneau. \u201cThere are few indigenous events in Victoria that gather that kind of response. As a Metis person, I can speak to how unique and empowering it is to be in the streets with hundreds of other indigenous people and our allies. Just being there together is something that I remember when I\u2019m struggling with the isolation a lot of urban native people feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
\nStarting at Our Place (919 Pandora Ave.)
\nSunday, February 12, 11 am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For more than two decades, the Women\u2019s Memorial March has taken place every Valentine\u2019s Day in downtown Vancouver. The march evolved, becoming the catalyst for a movement that has since reached cities across the globe. In Victoria, the fourth annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will take place Sunday, February 12. Spokeswoman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}