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 Vigil to commemorate missing Aboriginal women by Scott Lingley
The vigil, which has been organized by the U of A's School of Native Studies and the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, is partly a response to the murders of several Edmonton-area women involved in the sex trade, many of whom were Aboriginal. But Native Studies dean Dr. Ellen Bielawski said this series of deaths, which the Edmonton Police Service recently attributed to a serial killer, is the most recent headline-grabbing manifestation of deeper social issues. "We call these people 'missing women' - Aboriginal women are missing in so many ways in our society. I was thinking of what we could do at the university to bring this issue more into the consciousness of people here, because we live in a fairly privileged part of society," she said. "I really believe there are aspects of society that have to change so that things like this, in the best case, don't happen, but more realistically, if they do happen, that they aren't brushed aside - that the issue isn't missing as well as the women." The vigil, which takes place in the quad in front of the U of A's Pembina Hall, will begin with a candlelight march at 12:01 a.m. on Monday night leading into June 21, which is National Aboriginal Day, and will conclude 24 hours later with another candlelight march. The event will also include a moment of silence every hour on the hour, as well as speakers starting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, art, music and fellowship. Participants are encouraged to bring good shoes, warm and waterproof clothes and sleeping bags. "I've been telling people, if you can't come for 24 hours, that's fine, just drop in and spend some time with us as some point," Bielawski said. Currently Project Kare, an Alberta-wide RCMP-led task force, is investigating 41 suspicious deaths and 31 disappearances of people involved in "high-risk lifestyles" over the past couple of decades. Part of the investigation involves the suspicious deaths of 13 women in the Edmonton area since 1988. On Friday, Project Care offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible. Bielawski said she hopes people from all over Edmonton will make their way to campus for the vigil, not only to commemorate the women who can't be there, but so they can better understand the university's role as a resource for the public. "I really would like people outside the university to know that many of us here do want to take our research and teaching into action, into community service," she said. "We do the academic work in the School of Native Studies, we understand the issues that allow these things to happen really well, but we also want to be working with the community to solve the problems." This article originally appeared in ExpressNews.
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