Image Credit: Contributed
February 12, 2016 - 11:30 AM
KAMLOOPS - This weekend will see members of the indigenous community come together for a march to remember some of those they’ve lost.
The Memorial March will be happening around lunch time on Sunday, Feb. 14. March organizer Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour says the event is in solidarity with the missing and murdered indigenous women marches in other Canadian cities.
The issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls is gaining attention across Canada in recent months.
McNeil-Seymour says the march will also be about transgender and two spirited women.
“The issue came to light with women,” McNeil-Seymour says. “As the conversation has moved forward the binary of gender ignores the most marginalized of communities.”
Including members of the aboriginal LGBTQ community in the march, which typically is about women, helps bring attention to another group facing very similar issues.
“Being included under the banner with women helps keep our gazes on those people,” she says.
The event will start at 11:30 a.m. at Spirit Square on the North Shore.
“Because of the urban aboriginal population is centralized on the North Shore the planning committee thought that would be the best place to facilitate that march,” McNeil-Seymour says.
Apart from the march there will also be a smudging ceremony and speakers, including McNeil-Seymour and B.C. Native Women’s Association youth advocate Nikki Fraser who recently had a one-on-one with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“It’s an indigenous led moment but we want to keep it open to communities of other communities who have lost people as well,” she says. “I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for Kamloops.”
To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016