Policy Sectors

Press Release

NWAC President: “I will not stop demanding action to end this violence until every Indigenous woman, girl, and gender-diverse person can walk, without fear, down any street in these lands."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 3, 2022

OTTAWA – A statement from NWAC President, Carol McBride, on the day of the annual Sisters in Spirit vigils:

“Today we stand with all of those people across Turtle Island who have lost mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunties to this incomprehensible violence that a National Inquiry has determined to be a genocide. Today we embrace our Sisters in Spirit.

This is a day of sadness and also solidarity. Today, at vigils all across Canada, we will reflect on the women, girls, and gender-diverse people who we still love with all our hearts but who will never again walk through our doors, or call us for that weekly chat, or laugh with us from across the kitchen table.

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered has issued 231 Calls for Justice aimed at ending these deaths and disappearances. I pledge to you now, as the President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, that I will not rest until all of those Calls have been fulfilled. I will not stop demanding action to end this violence until every Indigenous woman, girl, and gender-diverse person can walk, without fear, down any street in these lands.

Today we reach out to the families who are suffering. We are holding you in our thoughts and our prayers and, where we can, we are holding you physically and saying you do not walk alone. We are by your side, holding you up as you grieve for the ones you have lost. And we call on the spirits of those who have been taken to be at peace, and embrace the love of those who still miss you each and every day.”

-30-

Media Contact:

For information, or to arrange an interview, contact:

Annette Goerner
annette@sparkadvocacy.ca
+1 (613) 818-6941

Pour obtenir plus d’information ou prendre des dispositions pour une interview, contacter:

Annette Goerner
annette@sparkadvocacy.ca
+1 (613) 818-6941


About The Native Women’s Association of Canada
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is a National Indigenous Organization representing the political voice of Indigenous women, girls, transgender, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people in Canada, inclusive of First Nations on and off reserve, status and non-status, disenfranchised, Métis and Inuit. An aggregate of Indigenous women’s organizations from across the country, NWAC was founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Indigenous women within their respective communities and Canada societies.

À propos de l'Association des femmes autochtones du Canada

L'Association des femmes autochtones du Canada (AFAC) est une organisation autochtone nationale qui représente la voix politique des femmes, des filles, des transgenres, des bispirituels et des personnes de sexe différent au Canada, y compris les membres des Premières nations vivant dans les réserves et hors réserve, les Indiens inscrits et non inscrits, les personnes privées de leurs droits, les Métis et les Inuits. Regroupant des organisations de femmes autochtones de tout le pays, l'AFAC a été fondée dans le but collectif d'améliorer, de promouvoir et de favoriser le bien-être social, économique, culturel et politique des femmes autochtones au sein de leurs communautés respectives et des sociétés canadiennes.