Stolen Sisters Memorial March

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Dear Friends of SJS,
A reminder that the Stolen Sisters Memorial March in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women will take place in Victoria this year on Saturday, February 14th, meeting at 11:00 at Our Place on Pandora and walking to the Legislature. see the facebook page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1530170627245117/?pnref=story.
Please also read the call to action and see the attached poster from Nikki Sanchez below:

Hi All,

The following is a call to action & a invitation to get involved on the issue of missing & murdered Indigenous women. Please distribute broadly.

Fed up with feeling outraged & heartbroken over the rising number of missing & murdered Indigenous women in Canada & the Harper government's utter apathy to the issue, my friend Corie Potter & I decided to create our own little awareness poster in the lead up to... the national Stolen Sisters march on February 14th.

Given that this issue is at the forefront of Indigenous communities but hugely ignored by the rest of Canadians, we decided that a poster campaign is a small act that anyone can participate in, anywhere in Canada, to bring awareness to the issue, begin conversations & apply political pressure. As well as distributing the poster in our own neighbourhoods, community centres, cafes, campuses, town centres & markets, we decided we wanted to send the poster out to our networks to do the same. The hope is that by engaging many people in a small act of solidarity, we can create a ripple affect that will transform the climate of the issue from being an Indigenous peoples problem to one that all Canadians are implicated in & responsible for addressing.

The poster is designed the educate & engage non-Indigenous people in the issue of MMIW & promote a sense of responsibility for all Canadians to take action. We tried to use very inclusive, non-confrontational language & imagery that would be visually enticing but not triggering. The image of the face is designed to represent the broad cross-section that the MMIW come from. This was important to dispel the media erroneous portrayal of these women as somehow engaging in at-risk behaviour & therefore personally responsible for the violence enacted against them. As it says on the poster, these women are our sisters, daughters, friends, some of them as young as 13. A lot of thought was put into creating a message that would be respectful of the women & their families while also calling people to action regarding the severity of the situation.

The poster urges people to begin conversations, as well as to contact Stephan Harper & express their desire for the systemic violence against Indigenous women to be addressed. If you are interested in participating, please share the poster with your networks & print out some copies to post in your communities. Be sure to cut silts along the lines at the bottom of the poster so Stephen Harper's email address is easy to tear off (a key function of the poster!). Also, please consider getting involved in the Stolen Sisters event closest to your community, the march is nationwide & happens on February 14th. If you are not yet connected to an organization in your community working on this issue, the march is a great way to meet people & learn strategies for meaningful involvement. I have also included some resource links below if this issue is new to you & you would like to learn more.

http://www.itstartswithus-mmiw.com

https://www.facebook.com/StolenSistersAwarenessMovement

https://missingsisters.crowdmap.com

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/report-of-1-000-murdered-or-missing-aboriginal-women-spurs-calls-for-inquiry-1.2628372

http://www.amnesty.ca/our-work/issues/indigenous-peoples/no-more-stolen-sisters

I am full of gratitude to be connected to a network of such beautiful people committed to standing up against injustice & I thank you in advance for taking the time to take part in an act of love & respect for the 1,200 missing & murdered Indigenous women & their families.

Tlazcamati,

Nikki

PS- Please contact me with any further ideas, feedback or adjustments to the poster you believe would make it more effective.

--

Nikki Sanchez

Master of Indigenous Governance

Department of Human and Social Development
University of Victoria

IGOV Bio: http://web.uvic.ca/igov/index.php/current-student-bios

Even after all this time, The sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me." Look what happens with a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky. ~Hafiz




Margo MatwychukDirector
Social Justice Studies ProgramUniversity of Victoriaweb.uvic.ca/socialjustice/@UVicSJS on TwitterUVicSJS on FacebookUVicSJS on YouTube
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