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In celebration of Red Dress Day, people gathered in downtown Kelowna to pray and spread the word about the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit + people.
Every May 5th, a new activity is organized to honor and increase knowledge of the thousands of missing and related issues.
On May 3, persons marched through downtown Kelowna to the beat of drums from Leon Avenue’s Ki-Li-N Friendship Society to the court and up.
” The dark clothes symbolize those who went missing”, said Leanna Curtis, the Maori care advocate for the Ki- Low- Na Friendship Society.
To show our unity and to recall these lost souls, Curtis said,” We wear a dark hand paint on our faces.”
She spoke at the court about how Aboriginal people, especially women and 2SLGBTQIA + folks, face significant amounts of assault, stemming from racism, colonialism and inter- millennial trauma.
According to Curtis, it is crucial to inform individuals about the experiences of the past and present that indigenous people have experienced as well as to honor those who never returned home.
The dark dress represents” the interpersonal relationship” and heritage. The single color that spirits can see is dark, according to legend. According to Curtis, the dark clothes assist in bringing the spirits of the murdered indigenous girls, girls, and two-spirited people back to their loved ones.
After the protest, elders who had lost loved ones and had survived racism and assault were invited to share their stories at a ceremony.
After the service, an Elder from the Syilx Okanagan and veteran of Catholic private schools, Janice Marie- August, said,” I merely around became a missing and murdered woman.”
When Marie-August was forced to travel with her siblings to a private university in Kamloops when she was five years old, she was removed from her home in Winfield.
Her sisters previously discussed their boarding school experiences during the summer break, and Marie-August claimed she had no idea what to expect. She was really looking forward to taking the bus with her relatives and the older children when she was five. But, as the vehicle got closer to the private university near, her sisters told her, “you have nothing to be joyful about. Never a thing”.
At the school, Marie- August said she was romantically abused and told repeatedly that no one, including her family, wanted her.
” Imperial- Catholic school was hardly a college, it was a kid brothel”, said Marie- August.
Not until much later in life, Marie-August claimed, did the abuse that occurred at the school always come up in the minds of her home. Her mother carried the stress of her own experiences with her because she survived private school as well.
Marie-August claimed that she had been bitter with her mother for allowing the clergy to remove her and her sisters for decades. She realized that her family had no alternative until she was older.
” I loved her, but I also harbor a lot of hatred because I wondered how you could let me endure that circumstance.” If she took us back, I did n’t know that she was facing prison terms.
Marie-August claimed that she survived numerous poor and dangerous relationships as a result of the stress and feelings of abandonment she experienced.
” I did n’t have a say. Men would only get me and keep me prisoner. I was near suicide a lot of times”, said Marie- August.
Marie-August claimed she had no choice but to hitch whenever she wanted to leave because she was raised in a remote area and raised in poverty. She would have to literally fight the men who would give her rides before fleeing and hiding in the ditch. They frequently turned out to be aggressive.
She explained that some lost on the Highway of Tears had to deal with similar circumstances to what she did, and that she may have been trying to avoid dangerous circumstances like her.
Marie-August is today a wonderful-grandmother and devoted to education to end the cycle of pain. One of her sons attended the event in Kelowna, supporting her. Marie-August has relied on indigenous lessons to manual her recovery from her experience at the private schools and has gone through years of counseling and therapy. If the first counselors they work with do n’t feel the right way, she encourages them to persevere.
According to Marie-August, some of her relatives have not been able to heal in the same way as they have, and as a result have passed on injury to their kids.
” My sister said, Well nobody cared for me. No single protected me”, about the lack of safety she offered her babies, said Marie- August.
Marie-August points out that it is crucial that people give kids the opportunity to talk in order to break the cycle of abuse.
” Listen to kids. They are intelligent”, said Marie- August.
She added that raising awareness of the intergenerational stress and prejudice that exist today is also crucial. She argued that in order to honor those who are not long with us, it is crucial to continue sharing tales and supporting one another. The people of today have been affected by the past.
To learn more about Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit + people and the resources that are available,
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