Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside

"Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside" is a short film that documents the 20 year history of the annual women's memorial march for missing and murdered women in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. By focusing on the voices of women who live, love, and work in the Downtown Eastside this film debunks the sensationalism surrounding a neighbourhood deeply misunderstood, and celebrates the complex and diverse realities of women organizing for justice. (32 mins)

A film by Alejandro Zuluaga and Harsha Walia, based on concept by the Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group. This is a not-for-profit production that is available for free distribution under creative commons license. For more information, to book a screening, or to order a DVD
please contact [e-mail] or [e-mail].

20 years ago, I was here

and easily any one of those
women could have been me

and it's just by luck and not design
that I'm here and I have my children.

And it was because of women in
the community who looked out for me

and helped keep me safe
in a really hard time.

And so, I march now,
cause some of them are gone

and because taking up space
and holding our presence here is so important.

Tiffany Drew

Angela Jardine

Tanya Holyk

Sherry Irving

Inga Hall

Diana Melnick

Debra Jones

Wendy Crawford

Andrea Borhaven

Cara Ellis

Carrie Kosky

Dorothy Spence

We acknowledge this film was made on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish People.

The Burrard, the Musqueam, the Tsleil-Waututh
and the Sḵwxwú7mesh.

My name is Janet Pete, and I've lived here in
the Downtown Eastside off and on for 40 years.

I feel like I've been here a long time.

I've lived down in the Downtown Eastside
for very many years.

It's probably one of the most
honest places in the world

and a lot of people have
a really hard time with that.

My friends here are like my family.

And one important aspect I found out
is that you'll never starve down here.

Downtown Eastside is accepting, and the
Downtown Eastside is home to a huge cross-section

of diversified people
with diversified interests.

And, um, I've never been afraid
of the Downtown Eastside.

When I first got down here I was very lost

and today I can honestly say
with being part of this community that

I have a lot of support like family,
through my sisters' love and support.

I have had an opportunity
to go back to school,

which I mean I would have never had
an opportunity to do had I not lived here.

and I've made great friends and, um, I expect that I'll
probably have the Downtown Eastside as my home

for the rest of my life.

It's like I belong here, you know,
and, uh, I fit right in, you know?

And, uh, I do a lot of work there
you know with the Power of Women

and marching and you know
and things like that.

This film is not another alley diary.

This film presumes no happy endings.

Last year, during the 2010 winter olympics

over 5 thousand people marched to honour
women who have died as a result of violence

or who have gone missing
in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

<\VOICEOVER> Since its beginnings 20 years ago

the Women's Memorial March has become the
longest running march in recent Canadian history.

The March began in 1991 when a woman
was found murdered on Powell Street.

I recall Phillippa Ryan,
who passed away last year,

telling us how the first few years
of the march brought out only a handful of women.

The women marching had objects
thrown at them from passing cars.

Women began disappearing from Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside as early as the 1970's.

But community members raising the alarm
were ignored by the police and officials.

Hart-Bellecourt and Lisa Muswagon-- please clarify>

Undeterred, women in the neighbourhood
organized persistently.

The issue has now started to receive
international attention

with the release of Amnesty International human rights
reports and condemnations of Canada at the United
Nations

My Indian name is Shining Eagle Woman

and we seen eagles up there
and those are our ancestors

and our sisters letting us know, they know what
we're doing down here for them in this world.

<\VOICEOVER> The Memorial March is planned by the
Annual February 14th Women's Memorial March C'tte.

The March follows a similar pattern each year
as described by Marlene George:

We gather in a circle
usually at Main and Hastings

Often there's a prayer
said at that time,

and then, um, we'll start
with the elders lining up

or the family members
followed by the elders

then when we stop at, um, the hotel sites or the places,
the alleys where women were murdered or last seen,

our elders will go over and do
a smudge ceremony at the site,

and leave either a red rose for murdered women
or a yellow rose for the missing women.

The memorial banner it's
96 pounds of 18x20 inches,

and that was created by women
and men in the community.

<\VOICEOVER> Christianne created the design for
the Women's Memorial March.

I was thinking, how can we get a design
that would combine the colours of the march

the purple and yellow

but it's valentine's day so of course
the ribbon heart came very easily

When you walk, uh, along this street here,
you walk into, uh, the money district,

within like three blocks,
so its very surreal,

when you walk through the streets here and then find
that this is a place where women can just go missing.

And nobody pays any attention.

So this particular neighbourhood, area, is where
a woman was thrown from the window, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

out of there, yeah it
was the 5th floor

and, uh, and this spot will be something, a place
that will be added to the Memorial March this year.

I think it's of particular
significance this year

because of the inquiry
into the missing women,

and that the report from the vancouver police which stated
that they were taking some responsibility

for what happened; and yet as we've continued
to see women, uh, being killed

you also see that the death of this woman
inspired the community to come together,

and that we saw hundreds and hundreds of people from this
community gather and honour this particular young woman,

Ashley [Machiskinic].

<\VOICEOVER>The tragedy of missing and
murdered women is paralleled across the country,

and memorial marches in honour of
the women are held in various cities.

Family members and activists have
organized a walk for justice

to press the federal government for an inquiry
into missing women along Highway 16,

now called the Highway of Tears.

In the past decade, there have been a number
of high profile convictions,

including of former provincial
court judge David William Ramsey,

and serial killer Robert Pickton.

I think the systemic violence against women
is not an anomaly.

It's not a phenomena that one man
has done this horrific thing.

I think it is, um, a result of the systemic, um, attitude towards poor women.

We also march for the women
that have died of other causes like, um,

some women die from
being homeless on the street.

Some people, or women die from overdoses.

Some women die from not having access
to proper medical care.

Numerous of women have been missing.

And the years that I have been down here
and seen these women go missing

hurt me so I'm here to be a support
of all the working girls,

the families, and watch over the kids.

Sandra Amos George

Ramona Lisa Marie Wilson

Peggy Snow

Nellie Spence

Marilyn Moore

Rose Peters

Sarah deVries

Lisa Francis

Connie Rider

<\VOICEOVER> Who are the missing and murdered
women whose names we invoke?

Describe myself? A very strong woman
that doesn't take a whole lot of shit.

I was a very active heroin user,
every kind of drug user,

um, for about 27 years,
28 years, um, yeah.

Then I got clean and sober, because, I don't
know why I got clean and sober, I just did.

I mean, it, I, you know, I was 44 when
I cleaned up, when I got clean and sober.

So it's certainly not um, i don't expect it, I absolutely
don't expect them to get clean and sober.

But I don't expect workers
to tell me that they can't.

A lot of the missing women, um, I actually
did jail time with, actually did drugs with.

I think that's one of the things that um
separates me from a lot of the workers,

is because I'm one of the women.

All the Downtown Eastside women
are lumped into one,

but they're women, they're absolutely living, breathing
women that each have an individual character.

Um, but, you know, we're talking about dead,
definitely murdered women,

and we should definitely
put that one day.

But you know what, we have over 300 other days
to think about the women that are still living,

think about the women that are still
homeless, and living in poverty.

Stretch

skin

hold

blood

lay

land

learn

shame

taught to pray

wake

broke

choke

bruise

taste

white boy

spit

pull

pay.

Jacqueline McDonell

Dianne Rock

Heather Bottomley

Andrea Josebury

Jennifer Furminger

Helen Hallmark

Georgina Papin

Heather Chinnock

<\VOICEOVER> The only way to understand the heinous
violence committed against missing and murdered women

is to understand the lives and the struggles of those
women who continue to survive in this neighbourhood

under the same circumstances every day.

the issues are that are really harsh are addictions
and homelessness are the number one issues outside my door.

I am a volunteer and a survivor
of abuse when I was a child,

And what I can see is that there is
a higher concentration of mentally ill persons

who live on the Downtown Eastside.

I have many friends that are
living with HIV, AIDS, Hep C.

I've been clean for a year since February,

and I am trying to quit smoking
this year I'm trying but, I don't know.

I've been a survivor of
the residential school,

and they've silenced me
while I was in school,

but since I've been with the Power of Women
I've broken the silence.

I protest for housing, violence against women,
police brutality, apprehension of our children.

I currently have some issues with the Ministry
of Children and Family Development

concerning housing issues, and that turned
into a whole bunch of other issues.

I've been in the Downtown
Eastside since 1996,

and, uh, to me it is the family oriented district
in Vancouver to the lonely and the homeless.

<\VOICEOVER>The Downtown Eastside is one of
the oldest neighbourhoods in the heart of Vancouver.

It includes Chinatown, where several
thousand Chinese seniors reside.

As well as the Oppenheimer district, which was
home for many Japanese Canadians

prior to their internment
during World War Two.

Cynthia Low talks about the historic significance of this
community as a cultural meeting place.

And as early as the 50s 60s and 70s there was really
only certain spaces that were allowed to Chinese people.

The values and the politics that was
established in those days have carried on

and become sort of a meeting place, um, for Chinese
seniors and Aboriginal people to I think to be allies.

<\VOICEOVER>Today, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is
known as the poorest off-reserve postal code in Canada.

Approximately 16,000 people reside within
these 2 square miles.

Unfortunately, it's becoming less and less
of a choice that fits one's pocketbook.

The land, everything down here
is extremely overpriced

and the developers have been
allowed to get away with it.

<\VOICEOVER> Lack of safe and affordable
housing is one of the primary issues,

with average rentals under 100 square feet,
with no bathrooms, and no kitchens.

The neighbourhood is also home to an open
drug trade and a visible survival sex trade.

One third of sex workers say they
have survived an attack on their life.

Of the 4,000 intravenous drug users

90% are infected with Hepatitis C,
and 30% with HIV.

You know, if you look at the alcoholism
and the drugism and all that right,

but once you get past all that, there are
actually beautiful people down here, you know?

But there's so much stigma
and judgement on people,

and it's really sad because
you know we're all human beings.

And not everybody down here is
a drug addict or an alcoholic.

You know, people have problems here, and
people outside this area they have problems too,

and they deal with it in
their own fashionable way.

If you look at the ripple effects
of the residential school

and just how it isolates us

It isolates me from my own body.

It isolates me from my
own identity from who I am.

It, um, it's almost like ripping your
skin off of you and you know

you kind of live in disassociation for years.

Every, all the struggles that our people
are going through right now

this is where everybody ends.

<\VOICEOVER>Despite being overly researched
and deeply pathologized,

the Downtown Eastside remains invisible
to most of our society.

Is there one thing that you think people don't know about
the Downtown Eastside that they should know?

Yeah, that everyone's got a story, you know,
everyone's got an angle.

<"And I Cry" performed by Dalannah Gail
Bowen> People living in misery.

People lost and alone.

I'm just trying to get by.

I ain't got a home

and I cry

and i cry

and i cry

and i cry

There's blood in the alleys,

blood in my breath

Theres the blood of my sisters

and no one asks why

For women in the Downtown Eastside
who are Aboriginal or Chinese, um,

you know, working or poor,
lack of access to education, um,

having had a lot of
crisis in their lives

or not having had the opportunity
to reach their potential,

I think all the barriers
add to their marginalization.

The fact that they're poor women is huge, um, I
think is probably the biggest systemic discrimination

that they encounter.

There are barriers that we put as a society,
place in front of people.

There isn't a day that goes by that i don't see
a woman being handcuffed and taken somewhere.

So now we're talking about the police officers
getting involved with "violence against women".

You have to really look at it
with a different angle now.

We're talking about men
and violence against women.

Has anyone really talked about
the police officer being the men?

Giving them the suit to wear,

guns, tazers, the power
to misuse the power?

Why doesn't anybody ever
question that fact?

<\VOICEOVER> The disturbing reality is that
nothing we are seeing < OR SAYING?>today

will come as a surprise.

Rachael Davis

Serena Abotsway

Tamara Chipman

Fern Charlie

Mona Wilson

Nancy Clark

Cara Ellis

Patricia Johnson

Marnie Frey

I just want to set a challenge to the
politicians, lawyers, the physicians,

the people in authority

to take an oath to protect the children

to protect our family here on earth.

In the words of Audre Lorde:

"If i didn't define myself for myself

I would be crunched into other
peoples' fantasies for me

and eaten alive".

Um, I was a part of this community, like,
I lost myself in this community,

but I eventually found myself down here.

My one suggestion to you people
is to get rid of that attitude

Get rid of that belief,
come down here, socialize,

phone me, feel free to call me.

I'm willing to take you out and about
and go for coffee and do whatever.

<\VOICEOVER> Those of us who come to
support this space with the best of intentions

soon realize we are the ones being taught.

But it can happen, and you want to be,
you want to do something,

and then you discover that it's
actually already being done,

that people are already, um, involved in
their own way of expressing justice for women.

<\VOICEOVER> In the middle of daily protests, grit,
grime, and sensationalist media headlines,

is an extremely vibrant community

Hello, hello,

I do volunteer work, and help people out,
and help some senior old people out.

I'm First Nations Aboriginal, Italian,
I'm Chinese, I'm East Indian,

and I would like to change

the point of view that the outside world
has looking in on the Downtown Eastside.

I help a lot of street kids, which is
one of my favourite things to do.

The most important thing I feel really blessed
to belong to is the Power of Women Group.

It's a group of women that have
come together from all walks of life,

um, and they've undergone
their own, um, journey.

Um, I am a, I am a mom.
I'm unfortunately not a grandma yet.

I am a resident of the Downtown
Eastside and very proud of it.

Myself and Harsha's group the Power to
Women Group, try to deal with many issues

of the Downtown Eastside.

And I enjoy it so much, I wouldn't want to be,
um, a resident anywhere else.

And the quality that I love and I
hope never disappears, is solidarity.

Together we all make up the Downtown Eastside
and I'm proud to be part of the hood. Peace out!

<\VOICEOVER> This film is a tribute to the resilience
and the generosity of women in the Downtown Eastside.

These women daily survive conditions that few of us
could imagine, let alone endure.

Women all around the world
are suffering. It has to stop.

<\VOICEOVER>To women in the Downtown Eastside:

With every heartbeat you carry dignity

In every breath we see your humanity.

With every step we join you

so you may walk free of violence and injustice.

I sing this song,

and all of those who have come before, before.

Who have come before, before.

Working to break free

Hey

Yeah

Hey

Don't ya hold me down no,

don't you see that I am flying?

I slip from your grip cuz I am free

Don't ya hold me down no,

don't you see that I am flying?

I slip from your grip cuz I am free.

This world is just a world

These bricks are made to fall

a broke through
your facade and so can we

so can we

this world is just a world

these bricks were made to fall

the broke through your facade

and so can we

so can we

I said prison break

prison break...