By Angela Sterritt
It’s a heart-wrenching story now etched in the minds of Canadians: more than 1,100 Indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered across the country since the 1980s. But just as tragic as the reality of hundreds of lives lost is what seemed to be decades of public indifference. Only recently has that pervasive apathy finally shifted to a public outcry—thanks to the tremendous work done by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).
In 2003, NWAC president Terri Brown, of the Tahltan Nation in British Columbia, broke the silence, speaking out about the disturbing estimate of more than 500 Aboriginal women gone missing over the past two decades. She underscored the limited investigation into most cases and called for action to support Aboriginal women in the struggle for their human rights to life and safety. Read More.