Oxford Remembers Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People

Friday, 5 May 2023 11:26

Photo Credit: Iisan- Ingersoll and area Indigenous Solidarity & Awareness Network Facebook page

Today is International Day of Recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People and a special event will be taking place in Tillsonburg tomorrow.

TILLSONBURG - It's International Day of Recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People.

The Ingersoll and Area Indigenous Solidary and Awareness Network (IISAN) will be hosting a special event in Tillsonburg tomorrow evening in order to shine a light on this. Cooperative Organizer Patricia Marshall shares some of the shocking statistics.

"So we all know that women in Canada have a one in two chance of being exposed to violence or sexual abuse in their life. One thing that is really important to highlight is that Indigenous women, gender non-conforming, and two-spirit people have an elevated risk of that by 16 times more than any other race. Sixty percent of all murdered female victims in all of North America are Indigenous women when they only make up five percent of the Canadian population."

Tomorrow's event will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Kinsmen Participark, just off Concession Street West.

Marshall says there will be an introspective red dress walk.

"We hang red dresses in the trees because it's the colour the spirits can see and it shows our missing and murdered loved ones the way home and that we still love them. We have approximately 50 dresses collected, but we're still looking for donations of red dresses to hang in the trees. If anybody has then, they can contact IISAN on Facebook or Instagram."

The event will also include several speeches and a red ribbon ceremony, where members of the public will be able to bring a red ribbon home with them.

Marshall says Indigenous women in modern times are often fetishized, romanticized, or abused. She says many don't realize the true story of Pocahontas, which was very different from the Disney movie that was released in 1995.

"It's very controversial. They definitely did a very horrendous job of changing the story and changing the men in that story to be romantic partners, when in fact they were her captures and abusers."

She says there are lots of powerful Indigenous women that we fail to recognize in history including Pine Leaf of Crow Nation, Buffalo Calf Road Woman of Northern Cheyenne Nation, Moving Robe Woman of Lakota Nation, Running Eagle of Blackfoot Nation, and Lozen of Apache Nation.

During her interview with Dan and Marcie this morning, Marshall also talked about the history behind two-spirit people and how the recent flag decision in Norwich Township also affects the Indigenous community. You can listen to the full interview below: