Canada: Indigenous Femicide on the Spotlight
Tsimshian Mask by get directly down
Through Women Make Movies we were made aware about a Canadian documentary which is bringing to public attention the disappearances and murders of more than 500 aboriginal women in Canada in the past 30 years. The film is called Finding Dawn by Christine Welsh. The movie is named after Dawn Crey, who was the 23rd victim whose DNA was recognized in the largest serial murder investigation in Canada back in 2002-2004. The film focuses on this story and others, as well as the reports and complaints regarding the authorities’ inaction regarding the murders and disappearances of these native Canadian women and the struggles the families of these women face on their road to find justice.
The clips to this film and others relating to femicide (the killing of women and girls) can be found in the Citizen Shift website's dossier on the subject. The first clip from Finding Dawn shows the case of Dawn Crey in Vancouver:
The second video shows us Yellowhead Highway, a lonely stretch of road that connects many different towns, where so many women have disappeared or been killed that it has become known as the Highway of Tears.
The third and last clip from the movie focuses on Doleen Kay Bosse, a woman whose family has spent years searching for an explanation to her disappearance, wondering why the authorities haven't taken seriously the reports of missing aboriginal women.