Everyone Welcome

OPEN HOUSE
Global Women's Memorial Website

December 6th, 2007
5:00 to 8:00pm
208-1529 West 6th Avenue
Giardini di Sole gallery
Vancouver, BC

Please drop by for tapas and discussion of the project.

The Global Women's Memorial has been in development for a number of years. In the new year we will be ready to begin fundraising. We welcome the opportunity to share our dreams for the project and look forward to making new friends along the way.

For more information:
globalwomensmemorial@gmail.com

December 6th Traditional Smudge Ceremony Open to Public to Cleanse DTES
WAVAW, the Squamish Nation, Aboriginal groups, multicultural organizations to join women’s anti-violence groups in Downtown Eastside
by Singing Thunderbird Child/Twice Standing Women (Darla Laughlin), Aboriginal

News Release

MEDIA ADVISORY
October 2, 2007

Smudge Ceremony for the Downtown Eastside

On Thursday, December 6, 2007, in commemoration of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, WAVAW along with the Squamish Nation, Aboriginal groups, and multicultural organizations, will join other women’s anti-violence groups in a Sacred Smudge Ceremony of the Downtown Eastside.

“Within this section of Vancouver which is no bigger than one square kilometre, women have silently disappeared, been kidnapped and murdered. The women living here are exposed to acts of violence on a daily basis,” states Singing Thunderbird Child/Twice Standing Women (Darla Laughlin), Aboriginal Outreach Counselor for WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre.

“This ceremony will cleanse the negative energy from this troubled area so that the healing process can begin.”

All members of the Vancouver community are invited to join the Sacred Smudge Ceremony which is grounded in the Four Sacred Directions of the Medicine Wheel.

“It is a time to honour Clan Mothers as leaders and sacred life givers, and pray for an end to violence against all women,” says Laughlin.

From the Medicine Wheel’s Sacred Directions of East, South, West and North, Aboriginal Elders will lead a smudge and say prayers along four city blocks in the Downtown Eastside. The ceremony will be followed by a procession of community members representing the four races (yellow, black, red and white). Elders of the 4 directions will then come together on the corners of Hastings and Main. Here, in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, with Traditional song, dance and drumming, prayers for peace, healing and safety for all women will be offered.

The December 6, 2007, Day of Remembrance Smudge Ceremony is open to all. Please call Darla at WAVAW at 604-255-6228 ext. 231 for more information about this event. We welcome your interest and participation.

For more information call Darla Laughlin at (604) 255-6228 ext. 231 or visit www.wavaw.ca

Silent March is a Voice for Murdered Women

Vancouver, March 8, 2007--Over 200 women and girls are murdered in Canada each year. Each death is an inexcusable crime, and the death toll destroys the fabric of our society. Activist Gwynne Hunt draws attention to the plight of women and girls by gathering their names and asking individuals to remember, grieve, and work for change. On Sunday, March 25th, starting at 2:00pm in Crab Park, Hunt has organized The Memory March, a silent walk and ceremony in remembrance of murdered and missing women in Canada.

The march will start from the Missing Women’s Memorial in Crab Park at the foot of Main Street, and go to the women’s monument, Marker of Change, in Thornton Park at Main Street and Terminal Avenue. In the circle of Marker of Change, participants will light 3,000 candles in memory of the women and girls we have lost to violence.

They will also wear the names of the almost 3000 murdered women and children remembered on the Facing the Horror: the Femicide List. Mary Billy began the Femicide List after the December 1989 Montreal Massacre. The list contains many of the names of women and children murdered across Canada since then. Gwynne Hunt assumed responsibility for the list since 2005.

A special ceremony will be held at Crab Park by Squamish First Nations elder Audrey Rivers. A candle brought from the missing women’s trial in New Westminster will be lit and placed in front of the Missing Women’s Memorial boulder before the walk.

Marchers are encouraged to bring flowers and matches. The march will be videotaped for use in a follow-up awareness campaign.

The Memory March is sponsored by Art Matters Society, a charitable organization based in Abbotsford, put together to produce the Fraser Valley Fringe Theatre Festival; they create live, un-juried theatre. One of the Society’s mandates is to produce shows that help stop violence in the community. Gwynne Hunt is the Artistic Director. Gwynne’s special focus is creating political theatre to help stop violence against women. In 1981, a fifteen year old family friend, Verna, went missing. She was never found. This tragic experience changed Gwynne’s life.

WHAT: The Memory March
WHEN: March 25, 2007 @ 2:00pm
WHERE: Crab Park, Missing Women’s Memorial, Vancouver, BC

For more information, please contact:
Gwynne Hunt: Phone: 604-859-2407
E-mail: inkslinger@shaw.ca

The 16th ANNUAL WOMEN'S MEMORIAL MARCH
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2007

Gather at Carnegie Community Centre Theatre
401 Main Street, Vancouver, BC
Beginning at NOON
March will start at 1 PM from Main & Hastings

This event is organized by women and led by women because women, especially Aboriginal women face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis.

Honouring and Remembering the lives of the 29 murdered women and the 40 women still unaccounted for in the downtown eastside.

Please come and support the 2007 February 14th Women’s Memorial March

For more information call Marlene at (604) 665-3005

Commemorate International Day to End Violence Against Sex Trade Workers
Salvation Army Church
11661-95st Edmonton Alberta Canada
Sunday the 18th at 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Caption Murry Taster and his wife Caption Annette Taster
Will help us pray for the missing and murderd sex trade workers.
Please pass this on to everyone you can.

www.SexTradeWorkersOfCanada.com

Carol-Lynn Starchan."Stay Safe"

Description In 2003, the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA in California called for vigils around the country and the world to bring attention to the sentencing of Gary Ridgeway, aka the Green River Killer, who confessed to murdering 48 women. Ridgeway said during his court case why he targeted young women working on the streets - "I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." His belief that police didn't prioritize investigating the murders of sex workers was reflected in the fact that he wasn't caught until 21 years after his first killing.

Stand with us on December 18th to demonstrate that you do not agree with Ridgeway's sentiment, and to demand that violence against sex workers is taken seriously. With shootings, stabbings, sexual assault, and more happening every month to women, men and transgender people working in the sex industry in DC, it's past time for something to be done.

Press is welcome.

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women: The Status of Women Canada has a calendar of December 6th events for all of Canada. The events are listed by province or territory and posted on their website. To visit the calendar area of their website, Please copy and paste this URL into the address bar of your web browser:

http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/dec6/calendar_e.html#BC

We, their brothers and sisters, remember and work for a better world.
In memory and in grief for all the women murdered by men,
Women of all ages, all classes, all countries and all colours.

Excerpt of the dedication on Marker of Change, Vancouver, BC

The National Film Board of Canada presents the Vancouver Premiere of

F I N D I N G D A W N

7pm on Thursday, November 2, 2006

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.amnesty.ca/filmfest
Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe St, Vancouver BC

For tickets: www.ticketstonight.ca phone 604.684.2787

Filmmaker will be in attendance

Dawn Crey. Ramona Wilson. Daleen Kay Bosse. These are just three of the estimated 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past thirty years. In Finding Dawn, acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh takes us on an epic journey into the dark heart of Native women's experience in this country from Vancouver's skid row to the "Highway of Tears" in northern British Columbia, and onward to Saskatoon, where the murders of Native women remain unresolved. Along the road to honour those who have passed, she uncovers inspiring stories of strength, courage and resilience, as communities come together to stem the tide of violence.

Official Selection of the San Francisco Annual American Indian Film Festival and the ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival.

www.nfb.ca/findingdawn

Any extra footwear you care to donate? Pat Kelln is presently requesting donations for the 2006 shoe memorial. Pat, with editing assistance from her partner and staunch supporter John, wrote the following description of the shoe memorial experience:

"On the stairs outside the Vancouver Art Gallery it is cold and there is a fine rain falling. The people who are walking past the Vancouver Art Gallery steps, have to stop and look: on the hand rails are white boards listing woman’s names and dates, in the centre is a large memorial wreath, and hundreds of woman’s shoes are lined up on the stairs. And in front of the stairs are volunteers, both men and women, waiting for the question “what is going on?”

"December 6th is Canada's National Day of Mourning for women who have met with violent deaths. It commerates the memory of the fourteen women who were methodically killed in Montreal (1989) at the L’Ecole Polytechnique.And this is Vancouver’s shoe memorial. It is a memorial to “all” the women who have been killed by violence.

"In 2003, I was a member of a group of women who had survived domestic violence, and we set up the first Shoe memorial here on the stairs. We were tired of going to events where only a few people came, we were tired of the publicity always going to the killers with the victims names forgotten, we were tired of women still being killed. So we decided to hold an all day memorial in a very public way and in a very public location. The symbolism is real and powerful. What do all women have? SHOES. And so on December 6, 2003 pictures of the first memorial began the evening news and appeared on the front page of the local newspapers.

"For every pair of shoes, there is a name and a date of a woman who was killed, for all to read and to remember. To remember that these women were someone’s mother, sister, or daughter. They had lives that were taken from them. We should at least remember their names. They are not just numbers, they are not just statistics, they had lives.

"Many people we have talked to each year have left a lasting impression on us. I remember a young father leaning over to explain to his very young daughter what today meant, what the shoes stood for, and that the violence against women had to stop. I also remember one woman who we talked to earlier, coming back with a new pair of shoes (still in the box) and tearfully putting those shoes on the stairs.


"We have been there talking to people every year since. In 2005, we talked to over 800 men, many who wanted information about what they can do to end the violence. That is 800 men who want to help end the violence, but didn’t know what they could do or where to go to find out. We handed out thousands of pamphlets such as '10 Things We Can Do' and '10 Things Men Can Do'.

"I think the memorial is accomplishing more than we ever imagined. We get to talk to people. We are changing society even if only one person at a time. Not only on the one day but also during the year. One woman I talked to again this year mentioned that every time she looked in her closet she was reminded of the memorial.

"Later in the afternoon, we begin to give away some of the shoes to people in need, all of the shoes are donated to various organizations that help women in need.

"Will we be there again this year? The answer is yes and every year after that until women stop being killed. In the rain, in the snow, whatever the weather talking to people telling them that violence against women is everybody’s problem and that everybody needs to be part of the solution.

"Many women will be helping to change society's view on violence in our lives, even if it is only by donating a pair of shoes.

"For more information please contact Pat Kelln at pat@domesticabusemuststop.org"