Media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

31^st Annual Downtown Eastside Women’s Memorial March

WHAT: Media Scrum for 31^st Annual Women’s Memorial March

WHEN: Monday February 14, 2022 at 10 am, preceding the March

WHERE: Outside Carnegie, Media tent on south side, Main and Hastings

 

MEDIA PROTOCOL: On Monday February 14, the Women’s Memorial March will formally begin at 10:30 am at Main and Hastings where family members will speak in remembrance. Media may film and record testimonies of family members only with consent. At 12 pm, the march takes to the streets and proceeds through the Downtown Eastside, with stops to commemorate where women were last seen or found and Elders offer prayers, medicines, and roses in remembrance. Speeches are made back again at Main and Hastings around 2 pm, followed by a healing circle at Oppenheimer Park around 3 pm. Media may record the whole march, including the ceremonies to remember our beloved sisters.

Full information is available at: https://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/2022/01/04/31st-annual-womens-memorial-march/

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Myrna Cranmer: memberoftheworld@aol.com

Carol Martin: 236-512-4511

Juanita Desjarlais: 604-690-7922

Kwekwáyel7simia Wendy Nahanee: 604-725-3953

For French media, contact Mebrat Beyene: 604-836-6464

February 9, 2022 VANCOUVER, Coast Salish Territories- The February 14th Annual Women’s Memorial March is held on Valentine’s Day to honour the memory of all women and gender-diverse people from the Downtown Eastside who have died due to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence. Now in its 31^st year, the march brings courage and commitment to end the violence that Indigenous women, girls, two spirit and trans people in the Downtown Eastside face on a daily basis.

The Women’s Memorial March Committee is hosting a media scrum on Monday February 14^4th at 10 am outside Carnegie at the Media Tent. The march begins at noon on Main and Hastings. 

The February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee was founded in 1992 when a woman was found murdered on Powell Street. For 31 years, the Committee has been a leading local, national, and international voice on the issue of MMIWG2S and violence against Indigenous women, girls, trans and two spirit people. Despite the 231 Calls to Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls over the three years ago, the reality on the ground in the Downtown Eastside has not changed. Indigenous women, girls, two spirit and trans people disproportionately continue to go missing, be murdered, or die far too early in the neighbourhood and across the country with no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, homelessness, deadly drug supply, worsening health conditions, racism, and colonialism.

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