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
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...