Join the Comox Valley Art Gallery today to honour the lives of missing and murdered women at the 8th Annual Women's Memorial March, starting at the Art Gallery at 11:30 and ending at Simms Park on the unceded territory of the K’omoks and Pentlatch peoples.
Raven Country News interviewed Kristy Bell, one of the original organizers of the local march and campaign organizer for Rachel Blaney. We spoke about the importance of this event, and why community members, not only indigenous peoples, should attend in solidarity
“Its great to have non-indigenous allies come join the organizations that are organizing those marches, just to really be together and recognize that this experience doesn’t just impact Indigenous peoples that it impacts all of us.” Bell said.
She told us about the local origins of the march, how a local elder Verna Wallace expressed the need for a local memorial spurred by the loss of her sister Selina Wallace. In 2014 they were holding a circle as a closing ceremony for another awareness project they were doing called “Moccasin Vamp”, where Verna spoke about the need locally for a memorial march.
“She kind of just stood up, looked at me, and said ‘How come we don’t have a memorial march on February 14th?’. So I had to do some digging and learning about this march, and learning that it was so important to Verna because her sister Selina Wallace had been missing since 1971.”
The last day Verna saw her sister they had spent the day socializing with family and friends. that evening, Selina and friends went to a pier near her family home in Cape Mudge, Quadra Island. Her family last saw Selina on the pier with a man. Selina did not return home the following day.
Bell told us, “She is still missing, and we are still gathering since 2014 to honour her, and everybody else, all the other families who have loved ones who are missing or have been murdered locally.”
“So really to support Verna, one of our local elders, but also to raise that awareness to the community that its impacting us locally as well. It’s not just happening in the Downtown Eastside, its not in some far off communities or other countries that this is happening, its happening in our own communities.”
Bell reminds us the importance of showing up in solidarity and community, as well as the need for us to educate ourselves and our loved ones on this crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and children.
“I think the first thing allies can do is join the march, you know join whats going on in your communities. Get to know the people who are on the ground doing that work so you can contribute to that work.” She said.
“So often its Indigenous people carrying that load of educating our allies, when we really need them to step up and do that education piece as well, that hard heavy work.”
She suggested reading the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions “Calls to Action” as a good place to start learning more. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network has a reality TV series called “First Contact”, available online, that is also a brilliant educational resource for Canadians who may be unaware of a lot of the oppression Indigenous peoples face to this day.
Lets come together at the Comox Valley Art Gallery at 11:30am today to grieve the loss of our beautiful sisters, remember the women who are still missing and walk together in a good way towards justice.
Thank you so much to Kristy Bell for speaking with us.
Calls to Action: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf
APTN's 'First Contact': https://www.aptntv.ca/firstcontact/#:~:text=About%20First%20Contact&text=This%20may%20explain%20the%20prevalence,on%20the%20true%20Indigenous%20experience
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