Action needed to end violence against women

Over 100 women, children and men marched down Stephen Avenue to Olympic Plaza on Oct. 4, many carrying placards with photographs of lost loved ones, and drumming in the annual peaceful protest that showed solidarity for the over 600 Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing across the country. They were part of a movement of over 200 vigils that took place nation-wide, a number that grows each year as awareness spreads from community to community.

Organized by Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society, the Ninth Annual Sisters in Spirit Vigil was an opportunity to honour the mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters and nieces, and to take a stand against violence. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has repeatedly called for a national inquiry into the missing women. According to the Status of Women Canada, 65 per cent of women admitted to Alberta emergency shelters are Aboriginal.

Following the opening prayer, speeches, traditional songs, dance and drums and a moment of silence filled the plaza along with the scent of smudge flowing through the afternoon air.

Ruth Scalp Lock told how 27 years ago she and others concerned about family violence and abuse within the Aboriginal community at Siksika First Nation sought to create a shelter, a place for women and children to go to escape violence. Scalp Lock’s late grandmother Margaret Bad Boy of Siksika gave the name “Awo Taan,” meaning “shield” in Blackfoot, to the shelter in a traditional blanket ceremony.

Instrumental to Awo Taan’s work has been the creation of a crisis training program with Aboriginal content to train crisis workers in traditional holistic and spiritual teachings based upon the Medicine Wheel.

Awo Taan Board member Tim Fox read Robert Animikii’s open letter of apology to Aboriginal women, including inciting words for action, “May we wake up. May we stand up. May we speak up.”

Interspersed throughout the vigil were traditional songs by Sheryl Greyeyes and her daughter Chantal Chagnon who led in the singing of the

Healing Song and the Crying Song to honour the broken hearts and the families left behind. They also sang the Strong Woman Song.

Tasked with ending violence against women, Calgary-North West MLA Sandra Jansen showed her commitment in her strong and compassionate words.

“This vigil is necessary to remind Albertans of the pain deeply felt in the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. To deny its seriousness is wrong. To deny outrage is wrong. There are not two types of women in this province,” said Jansen, associate minister of family and community safety, a position newly created by Premier Alison Redford.