Indigenous Women's Empowerment Day exists, Her Honours remarks posted

The Spring Equinox has been claimed by Indigenous women of this land as a time to empower each other for building a stronger foundation built on our own terms.

The Missing/Murdered Aboriginal women of Canada have sufferred many injustices. The least of all that of a memory built upon poor recognition of the systemic barriers, which essentially have created their memory into a faceless "tribe of lost souls".

Shameful.

Today, as I stood at the podium, announcing to those present that: "Today, the Spring Equinox of 2006 will be the start of Indigenous women empowering each other, supporting each other, in ways that will put society in a position that they cannot help but see our value, see the value of our loved ones. We refuse to be dependent on societies interpretation of our loved ones. We do not accept how our loved ones have become faceless. Today, we claim the Spring Equinox as Indigenous Women’s Empowerment Day.", I have to admit I was scared.

I was also mostly tired. I had been up very late getting things ready for that presentation, knowing not only would the queen's representative be there to join in this announcement, but also that my peers, teachers, chief's, and front line workers from the Downtown Eastside be there to hear my words.

It went well. I have to thank all those who attended to make this possible. There are no special days in which to recognize Indigenous women of the land concerns. I choose not to use the term Aboriginal as much. This term does not imply roots as much as Indigenous women does.

As scared as I was, there were friends to support. My family was not there, neither were my boys. As is the case when your a single mother with no resources. There are some things that friends just cannot replace.

As it is, I have found a path for next years proclamation. I will do this every year until there is recognition on the calender year for a day specifically for the Indigenous woman.

The women guest speakers included: Her Honour, Iona Campagnolo (her speech notes), Chief Lea George-Wilson from the Tsliel-waututh nation, Kelly MacDonald B.A., LLB, LLM, Catharine Crow PhD Candidate, and Marlene Trick - who organizes the Downtown Eastside Women's March every February 14th to honour the sites where women have been found murdered on Vancouver's Streets.

The guest speakers who spoke outside of this were given an opportunity to raise their voices which was apparent by all that they needed to. Even Curtis Joe, who was our lead dancer who organized the pow wow dance group, found himself with words to say. His wife had gone missing and was found murdered. He had suggested that perhaps his injury sufferred in last weekend's pow wow forced him to sit this dance out (was dressed in full regalia though), to allow himself to heal also. Since he had not taken time to talk much about his loss. It was quite emotional to see him almost break down and acknowledge that he hadn't taken time to talk about it much in the past. No more shame. No more guilt.

I was truly moved beyond words with things I had heard, the emotions I felt, and the knowledge of the length in time it is taking for anything to be done for these women. But, as is the case, there are those who continue to work, women who are there on the front lines, women like myself working behind the scenes - making them more visible, because if we didn't, they would remain invisible, like they truly did create their own demise. When the reality is, that society has created this situation.

In sisterhood,

Gloria Larocque