![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/deathleavesaheartache.png\" "\\"deathleavesaheartache\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath leaves a heartache.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were the words on a card that Jennifer Chieh Ho, the UNE\u2019s Regional Vice-President for B.C. and Yukon, received during last week\u2019s Memorial March.<\/p>\n
While countless Canadians were putting final touches on their Valentine\u2019s Day plans, many others took to the streets to honour our country\u2019s missing and murdered women. The first Memorial March took place 22 years ago in Vancouver\u2019s downtown eastside.<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, these marches have started taking place in many cities across Canada.<\/p>\n
Kristin Gilchrist, a co-founder of Families of Sisters in Spirit and a doctoral student at Carleton University\u2019s department of sociology, says these marches have grown considerably thanks to the important work of countless grassroots organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey draw critical awareness to the violence happening in our communities, especially violence directed at Indigenous women,\u201d wrote Gilchrist.<\/p>\n
Chieh Ho and a few members of her Local attended this year\u2019s march where it all started: in Vancouver\u2019s downtown eastside. She said she was especially happy to see such a diverse group of allies demonstrating for this important cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were many aboriginal brothers and sisters, but there were also a very encouraging number of men and women of all nationalities, of all ages, who came to support,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe march took us to a number of spots where women were found murdered or were last seen before they went missing,\u201d said Chieh Ho. \u201cWe took a moment at each spot to honour each woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chieh Ho said that a rose was left to mark each spot: a red rose for women found murdered \u2013 a yellow rose for women who have gone missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit shocked and saddened by the number of times we stopped,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The Native Women\u2019s Association of Canada has a list of more than 500 confirmed cases of missing and murdered native women \u2013 and those are just the ones they can actually confirm.<\/p>\n
Gilchrist says that Indigenous women face many barriers when it comes to being heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarriers are especially apparent when there\u2019s a failure by allies to make connections between anti-violence, anti-colonialism, and settler responsibility,\u201d wrote Gilchrist.<\/p>\n
She says Indigenous women\u2019s voices are often included only as an afterthought or silenced altogether. And it\u2019s not at all uncommon for those running their own agenda to simply expect these women to go along with their plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things happen far too often,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The Harper government continues to brush off demands for a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.<\/p>\n
As Jennifer Lord of the Native Women\u2019s Association of Canada told us last year: \u201cThis is what the families want.\u201d<\/p>\n