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“Their Spirits Live Within Us”: Annual Women’s Memorial March

In January 1992 a woman was murdered on Powell Street. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. This woman’s murder in particular was the catalyst that moved women into action. 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, Coast Salish Territories.

Decades later, the memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women, and all women’s and gender-diverse peoples’ lives lost in the Downtown Eastside. Increasing deaths of many women and gender-diverse people from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Indigenous women, girls, two spirit and trans people disproportionately continue to go missing or be murdered with minimal to no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism, or colonialism. The heinous and unimaginable violence that have taken the lives of so many has left a deep void in our hearts.

This event is organized and led by women in the DTES because women – especially Indigenous women, girls, two spirit and trans people – face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis. The February 14th Women’s Memorial March is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters, remember the women who are still missing, and to dedicate ourselves to justice. We gather each year to mourn and remember our sisters by listening to their family members, by taking over the streets, and through spiritual ceremonies. Please join us.