Film remembers missing and murdered women

Raven's Eye

Page 14

Metis film-maker Christine Welsh is sending a message of hope, resilience and awareness through her powerful, poignant and painful documentary concerning the ongoing epidemic of violence inflicted on First Nation women in Canada.

Welsh's film, Finding Dawn, examines the lives of five Native Canadian women, three of whom are either missing or have been murdered. The renowned artist, who calls the chronicles in her film "stories of transformation," can accurately declare her work a vessel for the propagation of greater public consciousness concerning the reality of violence inflicted on Native women.

"One of my goals as a filmmaker is to do what I can to give voices to those who don't always have a voice," Welsh said to a full house at the premier of her film, held at the Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver on Nov 2. "I wanted people to understand who these women were and what they've left behind."

The first film shown at the 11th annual Amnesty International Film Festival, Finding Dawn has broken festival records by selling out prior to opening night. With such acclaim during its initial week, it is not surprising the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) production has recently won an award for audience favorite at the festival.

Produced by the NFB's senior producer Svend-Erik Eriksen, the film is named for Dawn Crey, a woman from the Chillawack Stolo First Nation who went missing from Vancouver's notorious downtown eastside in 2000 and whose DNA has been linked to the high profile case against Robert Pickton, who faces 26 first-degree murder charges based on evidence found on his Port Coquitlam pig farm. Crey's tragic story is the first to be told in the documentary. Through family interviews and childhood pictures, Welsh takes audiences on an emotional journey through Crey's upbringing in a family that, although inflicted by the residual pain associated with residential school abuse, now appears loving and supportive.

Other stories told in the documentary include that of the murder of a 16-year-old student whose body was found on a stretch of Highway 16 in Northern B.C. and the 2004 disappearance of a young mother and university student who went missing without a trace in Saskatoon.

Fittingly dubbed the "Highway of Tears," the remote stretch of highway between Prince Rupert and Prince George is where nine women (eight of them First Nation) have gone missing or been found murdered since the 1990s. It is in the rural community of Smithers, B.C. where Welsh travelled and documented the story of slain teenager, Ramona Wilson. A bright light in her family, Wilson was not unlike many teenagers who craved excitement outside the limits of her small town. On a June night in 1994, the young woman decided to hitchhike from Smithers to the neighboring community of Morristown to meet up with friends and participate in high school graduation parties. In April 2005, almost a year to the date from her disappearance, Wilson's body was recovered off the winding, desolate stretch of Highway 16.

From B.C., Welsh traveled to Saskatoon where another family and close-knit community have lost a young woman. Missing since 2004, 26-year-old Daleen Kay Bosse, a mother and student, disappeared without a trace. For two years members of Bosse's community have rallied together in an attempt to locate any clues that may lead them to Bosse's whereabouts but to date no evidence related to the case has been uncovered.

Finding Dawn tells the tragic stories of women whose lives have met a violent end. Welsh's documentary illuminates the reality of the brutality against Native women, yet rays of hope filter through the darkness, through annual ceremonies that not only forge awareness of the violence but also act as reminders that these women existed in the lives of all who loved them.

From the annual Downtown Eastside Women's March in Vancouver, to memorial walks on the "Highway of Tears;" loved ones are finding ways to celebrat the lives and honor the spirits of these women while providing awareness and demanding justice and accountability.

In Finding Dawn, hope is also personified through the stories of two women who have lived through the darkness of life on the streets and substance abuse.

Janice Acoose is a living example of a life transformed. A professor and student of Indigenous literature at the First Nations University of Canada, the Saulteaux/Metis woman knows what it's like to pick yourself up from the dark depths of dysfunction. Acoose lived a life on the streets, but through hard work, support and the desire for a better life, she turned her life around and is now a celebrated writer, scholar, producer and advocate for the empowerment of Indigenous people.

Fay Blaney is another example of hope and transformation. The Homolko First Nation women fled her now-abandoned coastal community of Church House once located off northern Vancouver Island. In the film, Blaney shared her story of life on the Vancouver streets.

Dislocation, disassociation and despair epitomized much of her youth.

In her adulthood Blaney's life took a positive turn and she returned to her community-a community that had now been relocated to a parcel of land in Campbell River, B.C. As an adult and professional educator, Blaney acknowledges the legacy of abuse her community has suffered through. Displacement, residential school abuse and substance addiction has infected much of her reservation.

Blaney told Raven's Eye of the violence against women on her island reservation. Gang rapes have been prevalent in her community and while Blaney is ardently working as an advocate for positive change, she admits a lot of work has yet to be done.

"There are still some real ups and downs," Blaney said. "A lot of women in the community still think that the atrocities they experience in the community are normal."

Blaney said respect, responsibility and the rehashing of issues and recovery from displacement is neded in her community before any positive changes can be made.

Blaney and Acoose both agreed that while it is important to honor these missing and murdered women, we as a society should focus on what we can do to prevent women from being at risk to predators.

"Our concern should be focused on those that are living, that are vulnerable to becoming missing women," Blaney said.

The importance of illuminating and examining difficult issues associated with the pain of residential schools and the legacy of family dysfunction was echoed by Lorraine Crey. The younger sister of Dawn Crey, she is another advocate for change and independently speaks to youth in her community who need guidance concerning an abundance of issues. She said she is very happy with the way Christine Welsh told her sister's story and said films like Finding Dawn are needed to provide a deeper understanding of the realities of life for women on Vancouver's streets.

The Stolo First Nation women hopes that through advocacy work and films like Welsh's, important issues will get the attention they deserve and these women won't be forgotten.