FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE
Everytime I see that figure, my vision blurs and my throat tightens and burns with tears, and I feel my heart begin to pound. Five hundred and twenty one missing or murdered indigenous women in this country. If this was proportional to the rest of the population the figure would be 18,000. What would happen if there were 18,000 missing or murdered white women in this country? There would be screaming and gnashing of teeth and police forces pressed into action with task forces and resources dedicated to finding these women or solving their murders. The media would be on the story night and day, we would be inundated with their pictures and their stories and everyone would be saying, we have to do something, we have to stop this atrocity. But because it’s indigenous women there is only silence. Because these victims and their families are powerless, because it’s just another Indian – there is only silence. No outrage, no questioning, no resources put behind finding the perpetrators and b...