Unfazed by the cold February rain, hundreds of residents of Greater Victoria gathered to remember the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people at the Stolen Sisters’ March.
Monique May, march organizer and committee member with Stolen Sister 2S231, added that the event also doubled as a tribute to the resilience of Indigenous survivors, as people slowly gathered at Victoria's Centennial Square shortly before noon on Feb. 16.
“It's a day to come together to honour the memory of our missing and murdered women, girls, and LGBT people, and we recognize the missing men and boys as well,” said May. “It is also to uplift the survivors and their family members. It's a space to bring allies together to grieve and stand in solidarity.”
Marking the event’s 16th year, May added that the memorial also serves as a nationwide call, on all government levels, for justice for Indigenous communities and beyond.
“I would like to be able to have dialect and conversation with our provincial partners to see where they even sit,” said May. “We want to make the community not just safe for Indigenous people but for everyone; gender-based violence doesn't discriminate against anyone's race.”
Before leading the march to the B.C. Legislature at 1 p.m., May said the event held particular symbolic importance to her, emphasizing the need for Indigenous voices in decision-making processes affecting their communities.
“I'm a survivor,” said May. “I'm very blessed to have travelled to every province and every territory in this country. The one thing that we have is we all can give a story about a missing or murdered relative.
“But you have to look at the resilience of our people and our voices are becoming stronger and stronger. We're moving forward to try to do the work. We just need the support of the community.”
In attendance, holding a poster with a woman’s face on it, was Helen Joe and her family. The woman in question was her sister, Catherine Joe.
“She was murdered in January 1977 and her body is found in June,” said Joe. “We were getting phone calls saying they've seen her here and there so my dad, brothers and uncles were going out to check the places and it wasn't her.
“A hiker found her near the hospital in Duncan. We were lucky he found her because we wouldn't know what happened to her. My mom had to go identify her deceased body. It was too hard on her because my dad and brother and uncles were out of town and she went by herself.”
More than 47 years later, Catherine’s case is still going cold. Asking for justice and seeking closure, Joe and her family are attending the event to share their story and hopefully move the conversation forward.
“We just want to be safe,” said Joe. “To this day, there’s still quite a few [of our people] missing and there’s no justice for us and our people.”
