Reflections on the annual Women’s Memorial March – David Suzuki Foundation

February 11, 2025

By Elizabeth Zarpa, Inuk legal scholar and lawyer from the community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador

February 14 marks the 33rd annual Women’s Memorial March, when thousands of people will gather in cities across Turtle Island in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse (2SLGBTQQIA+) people. The historical and ongoing crisis of systemic violence against Indigenous women and girls is widely documented. It is deeply rooted in colonialism, in the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples of the territories they have inhabited and stewarded over millennia and in the environmental degradation and exploitation of their ancestral lands and waters.

In 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls led to 231 “Calls for Justice.” The inquiry left no doubt as to the intimate link between extractive industries in Canada and systemic violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, in clearly stating that development projects and temporary industrial camps contribute to increased risks of physical and sexual violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.

Read More: https://davidsuzuki.org/story/reflections-on-the-annual-womens-memorial-march/