Annual march honours missing, murdered Indigenous women

It's been nearly two years since Sheridan Martin's sister's remains were found. For her family, the trauma is fresh.

Cindy, a Gitanmaaxwoman, disappeared before Christmas of 2018 on northern B.C.'s Highway 16, dubbed the Highway of Tears. She was 50.

"We're only one of how many thousands of families across Canada that have a missing or murdered loved one?" Martin said Wednesday, speaking to a crowd of more than1,000 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, gathered for the 33rd annual Women's Memorial March.

"It's a pain and trauma that we can't even describe," she continued. "Andeven when justice is done, we still sit with that trauma.

"My heart goes out to each and every one of the families that are missing a loved one I'm talking about men, women, boys andgirls ... Where do we start to unpack this?"

For 33 years, the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside have filled with the sounds of drumming, signs of hundreds of photographs of Indigenous women, and the smell of burning sage every Valentine's Day to honour and remember the people who have beenmissing and who were murdered.

The Native Women's Association of Canada maintains a list of nearly 600 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people across the country, over the span of 20 years.

In 2019, the federal government's national inquiry on the crisis concluded its root cause was"persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses ... behind staggering rates of violence."

At this year's Women's Memorial March, speaker after speaker stepped into the centre of a large circle of tents erected around the intersection of Main and Hastings streets offering shade to Elders seated on folding chairs. After speaking, they were gifted a red blanket topped with a cedar bough.

The events began with a private ceremony restricted tofamilies of victimsinside the Carnegie Community Centre.

That was followed by singing, drumming, speeches by families, and a sombre walk to mark various places around the neighbourhood where missing Indigenous women were last seen, or where they were found.

Several offered gratitude forthe community they have found since they connected with other families who faced similar tragedies, recent or otherwise.

"It's a blessing to be here," said Elva McMillan, who travelled from Alberta with herbrother, husbandand granddaughter to honour her late sister, Nadine, who was murdered in the Downtown Eastside at age 19 decades ago. "She'll always remain in our hearts; she'snever forgotten.

"Still women are going missing, even though this march continues on every year ...I don't know if we'll ever see justice or if this is ever going to end."

The organizers of the annual event said the march continues to be a vital way to honour the loss still fresh for many families, but also to recognize that Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQ+ people continue to "face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis," according to a statement.

The march was first held in 1992, following the murder of ashshlhNation woman, Cheryl Ann Joe, on Powell Street.

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"It's a reminder there's still Indigenous women going missing or being murdered," said Assembly of First Nations B.C. Regional Chief Terry Teegee, who himselfis marking 30 years since his family member Ramona Wilson, 16, went missing alongthe Highway of Tearsin 1994.

"It's sad we have to come and remind everybody every year," Teegee told CBC News. "But it's also a good thing to see so many advocates here to push the levels of government and general society that this is still occurring.

"The immediate families are not alone, there is support out there from the other families and the general public."