Current News Articles
Kelly Edzerza-Bapty, an architect from the Tahltan Nation in northern BC and one of the founders of ReMatriate, a photographic campaign that provides a drastically different image of indigenous women than the stereotypical tropes found in popular culture. Check out the link below on The ReMatriate Movement Takes on Fashion’s Indigenous Cultural Appropriation
Current events media last updated: June 9, 2020
The Highway of Tears
The 720 kilometres between Prince Rupert and Prince George has been come to be known as the Highway of Tears for the women who have gone missing or murdered on this stretch of highway.
The Highway of Tears website has a number of resources available for people who have lost loved ones to violence, as well as a safety toolkit for adults and youth. Read the report and recommendations from the 2006 Highway of Tears Symposium.
Some articles from newspapers the Highway of Tears:
Below are some different ways that the community and government has worked to make it safer to travel on the Highway of Tears:
"New bus service aims to make notorious Highway of Tears less dangerous" CBC Article on the buses that link the towns along the Highway of Tears.
"Province provides $360K to help Indigenous drivers secure licences" The Interior News article on funding for more drivers licences to help reduce hitchhiking along the highway
Responses to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
- Walking With Our SistersWalking With Our Sisters is by all accounts a massive commemorative art installation comprised of 1,763+ pairs of moccasin vamps (tops) plus 108 pairs of children’s vamps created and donated by hundreds of caring and concerned individuals to draw attention to this injustice.
Organizations & Associations
- Families of Sisters in SpiritFSIS is all-volunteer, grassroots, unfunded group of families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people and ally-friends.
- Mending the Sacred HoopMending the Sacred Hoop is a Native-owned and operated non-profit 501(c) 3 organization that exists to address violence against Native women and works to end it. Based in the US.
- MMIWG National Inquiry WebsiteThe National Inquiry must look into and report on the systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls, including sexual violence. We must examine the underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional, and historical causes that contribute to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of Indigenous women and girls in Canada. The mandate also directs us to look into and report on existing institutional policies and practices to address violence, including those that are effective in reducing violence and increasing safety.
- Moose Hide CampaignThe Moose Hide Campaign is a grassroots movement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and boys who are standing up against violence towards women and children. Over the years it has grown into a national campaign to engage all Canadians, with over 1,000 participating communities and organizations across the country.
- Native Women's Association of the Northwest TerritoriesNWA NWT is committed to being the voice of Native women in the Northwest Territories and to building relationships with all levels of government and other organizations to ensure all Native women and their families will live free from social and economic distress; to promote their sacred roles as valued and respected members in the community; and to preserve their culture, language and heritage.
- Native Women’s Association of CanadaThe Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) has worked for more than four decades to document the systemic violence impacting Indigenous women, girls, their families, and communities. From 2005 to 2010, NWAC’s Sisters In Spirit (SIS) Initiative confirmed 582 cases of missing and/or murdered Indigenous women and girls over a span of twenty years and worked to raise awareness of this human rights issue.
- No More Stolen Sisters-Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International's 2004 Stolen Sisters report was one of the first reports to systematically document the pattern of violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Due to continued government inaction to end the violence, the findings and recommendations in the 2004 report, and its 2009 update, are as relevant today as they were at the time of publishing.
- Ontario Native Women's AssociationOntario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) has advocated for safety, equality and justice for Indigenous women. Our 1989 groundbreaking report, Breaking Free, exposed the true extent of the violence indigenous women faced. After building on this work for nearly another three decades, ONWA was pleased at the announcement of Walking Together in 2016, and the opportunity for partnership with Ontario to address the issue of violence against Indigenous women.
- Our Bodies, Our Stories at the Urban Indian Health Institute (Washington State)Our Bodies, Our Stories is a series of reports that details the scope of violence against Native women across the nation. The first report highlighted data relating to sexual violence against Native women in an urban setting—Seattle, Washington. The second report provided a snapshot of the missing and murdered Indigenous women & girls (MMIWG) crisis in—and the issues with data collection from—71 urban cities across the country. The third report will focus on the MMIWG crisis in a state setting.
- Red Ribbon Alert ProjectThe Red Ribbon Project is a app designed to help aid in the search for missing indigenous women through community networking.
- ReMatriate CollectiveReMatriate works to to put indigenous women back in control of the way they are represented and to honour the respected traditional roles Indigenous women held before colonization.
- Sovereign Body InstituteSovereign Bodies Institute builds on Indigenous traditions of data gathering and knowledge transfer to create, disseminate, and put into action research on gender and sexual violence against Indigenous people.
- Yakama Nation Victim Resource Group REDgaliaThe Yakama Nation Victim Resource Group provides resources and support to families with missing and murdered loved ones and to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
News
The following is a list of news sources to refer to for current information:
Hashtags on Social Media
Hashtags (#) are one way people use social media to share and stay up to date on current events. Much of the MMIWG movements, awareness and information has been spread and shared through social media using hashtags. These are some of the current ones used on Twitter and Instagram to share news articles, pictures, and information about missing or murdered loved ones.
- #MMIWG
- #MMIW
- #MMIW2S
- #missingandmurdered
- #genocide
- #callsforjustice
- #MMNAWG
- #gonebutnotforgotten
- #REDdress
- #VAW
- #sistersinspirit
- #NotInvisible
- #NoMore