By Alexandra Mehl, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter HA-SHILTH-SA

For more than three decades, Valentine鈥檚 Day in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside (DTES) has been marked with the commemoration of Indigenous women and girls who are missing and murdered.

But women and girls continue to be missing and murdered, leading family members and advocates to say not enough is being done to protect Indigenous people.

Sheridan Martin of Gitxsan Nation attended this year鈥檚 memorial march with her mother, daughter and granddaughter to honor her sister, Cindy Martin, who went missing in 2018. For five years no one knew what happened to Cindy, but on Aug. 9 of 2023 Cindy鈥檚 remains were discovered.

鈥淚f you rewind it 20 years ago, Cindy was the one that brought us here,鈥� said Sheridan of the DTES Memorial March, adding that Cindy was involved in advocating for missing and murdered women and girls.

Cindy had lived in Vancouver working as an Indigenous advocate for the school board and teaching Indigenous women and girls from the Downtown Eastside how to drum and sing. But at the time of her murder, she was in her hometown in northern B.C.

鈥淭his is important for me, because the murdered and missing Indigenous women started going missing in, probably, 1970,鈥� said Sheridan. 鈥淔ast forward to 2024, and it hasn鈥檛 slowed down.鈥�

According to Statistics Canada, 490 Indigenous women and girls were murdered between 2009 and 2021, translating to a rate that is six times higher than non-Indigenous women.

Indigenous women and girls are overrepresented as victims of homicide. During this time period they made up almost three per cent of Canada鈥檚 population, Statistics Canada reads, while accounting for between five and seven per cent of victims.

鈥淚鈥檓 highly aware that my granddaughter can go missing because she鈥檚 Indigenous,鈥� said Sheradan. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about my daughter going missing because she鈥檚 Indigenous, because she鈥檚 a woman, because she鈥檚 a female.鈥�

Karen Williams of Gitxsan was at the march in memory of her sister, Alberta Williams, who went missing in 1989.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very uplifting, very uplifting and positive,鈥� said Williams of the Memorial March. 鈥淭o come and support one another.鈥�

鈥淚ndigenous women are not valued as women in a place where it鈥檚 our land,鈥� said Williams. 鈥淲e should be standing together to stop that.鈥�

Carol Martin has worked in the DTES women鈥檚 centre and been involved in the Memorial March since it began.

鈥淲omen still to this day continue to go missing, nothing has really changed,鈥� said Martin.

鈥淭his whole platform is to bring awareness that things haven鈥檛 changed for us Indigenous women, our sacred givers of life. They鈥檙e to be honored, they鈥檙e to be respected.鈥�

But Martin shared that Canada needs to shift the way Indigenous women are thought of.

鈥淲hen the media starts talking about these things, the first thing they say is she was a working girl, or she lived a high-risk lifestyle,鈥� said Martin.

鈥淚 think at birth, we鈥檙e at a high-risk,鈥� Martin added, 鈥渓ifestyle as Indigenous women.鈥�

The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was published in 2019. Since then, Martin said that there has been very slow progress.

鈥淲here鈥檚 the response from the government?鈥� she said. 鈥淭he work is not being put into place to make those changes, and it needs to happen soon.鈥�

For Sheridan Martin, layers of oppression, poverty and systemic racism need to be addressed to stop Indigenous women and girls from going missing.

鈥淗ow do we start peeling those layers back and really taking a look at how humanity has treated our Indigenous women and girls,鈥� said Sheridan.

鈥淲e have to stop them from going missing,鈥� added Sheradin. 鈥淗ow do we put the face of humanity on each Indigenous woman and girl so they鈥檙e not looked at as something to be killed and discarded?鈥�

鈥淚f we stand in solidarity, we become a louder voice,鈥� she continued. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just one voice or thousands of voices, this march is sending out a message across Canada.鈥�

Sheridan hopes that in her granddaughter鈥檚 life she sees changes and that there no longer Indigenous people going missing and being murdered.

鈥淚 see that hope is still surviving, and hoping to find justice for what happened to the women - especially at the Pickton farm,鈥� said Carol, as she explained the yellow roses used in the march represent hope.

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