shishalh Nation attends Women’s Memorial March

shishalh Nation staff, teens, and members of Chief and Council attended this year’s 33rd Women’s Memorial March in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

The Memorial March, on or around Valentine’s Day, is organized for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirited people, and transgender individuals from across the country. It was started in Vancouver in 1992 after a shishalh Nation woman and mother, Cheryl Ann Joe, was killed.

shishalh Nation members and staff held a quilted banner as affected families spoke to the crowd. Each piece of the banner was sown by a family member of a lost loved one. Then, Nation members marched with thousands of others through the Downtown Eastside, alongside drummers and other marchers. People laid flowers and stopped at the different locations where the women were last seen or found.