Who are MMIWGM2S?
MMIWGM2S stands for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, men and two-spirit people. The families of missing and murdered Indigenous women have been raising awareness for decades. In 2004, the Native Women’s Association of Canada launched the Sisters In Spirit campaign to address violence against Indigenous women and girls, creating a database of these disappearances for greater coordination and communication across communities.
Through this program, the MMIWGM2S communities and allies collectively called for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The National Inquiry began in 2016 and ended in 2019. This inquiry found that the rate of sexual and gender based violence experienced by MMIWGM2S amounted to genocide. Despite the National Inquiry’s best efforts to gather all of the truths relating to the missing and murdered, no one knows an exact number of MMIWGM2S, but the numbers are in the thousands.
Learn more about MMIWGM2S:
- Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls:
- National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
- MMIWG2S+ and the Failure of Policing
- In Between the Missing and Murdered: The Need for Indigenous-Led Responses to Trafficking
- Safe Passages Map: MMIWG2S+ Cases
- No More Stolen Sisters, Amnesty International
3 Things you MUST Know about the MMIWG Final Report
Books on MMIWGM2S
Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada by Call Number: HV6250.4.W65 F68 2016ISBN: 9781772580204Publication Date: 2016-05-01The hidden crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada is both a national tragedy and a national shame. In this ground-breaking new volume, as part of their larger efforts to draw attention to the shockingly high rates of violence against our sisters, Jennifer Brant and D. Memee Lavell-Harvard have pulled together a variety of voices from the academic realms to the grassroots and front-lines to speak on what has been identified by both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations as a grave violation of the basic human rights of Aboriginal women and girls. Linking colonial practices with genocide, through their exploration of the current statistics, root causes and structural components of the issue, including conversations on policing, media and education, the contributing authors illustrate the resilience, strength, courage, and spirit of Indigenous women and girls as they struggle to survive in a society shaped by racism and sexism, patriarchy and misogyny. This book was created to honour our missing sisters, their families, their lives and their stories, with the hope that it will offer lessons to non-Indigenous allies and supporters so that we can all work together towards a nation that supports and promotes the safety and well-being of all First Nation, Métis and Inuit women and girls.
Highway of Tears : a true story of racism, indifference and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls by Call Number: HV6250.4.W65 M33 2019ISBN: 0385687575Publication Date: 2019"An explosive examination of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Highway 16, and a searing indictment of the society that failed them. For decades, women--overwhelmingly from Indigenous backgrounds--have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern B.C. The highway is called the Highway of Tears by locals, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. In Highway of Tears, Jessica McDiarmid meticulously explores the effect these tragedies have had on communities in the region, and how systemic racism and indifference towards Indigenous lives have created a culture of "over-policing and under-protection," simultaneously hampering justice while endangering young Indigenous women. Highway of Tears will offer an intimate, first-hand look at the communities along Highway 16 and the families of the victims, as well as examine the historically fraught social and cultural tensions between settler and Indigenous peoples that underlie life in the region. Finally, it will link these cases with others found across Canada--estimated to number over 1,200--contextualizing them within a broader examination of the undervaluing of Indigenous lives in the country and of our ongoing failure to provide justice for the missing and murdered"-- Provided by publisher.
Violence Against Indigenous Women by ISBN: 9781771122498Publication Date: 2017-08-24Violence against Indigenous women in Canada is an ongoing crisis, with roots deep in the nation's colonial history. Despite numerous policies and programs developed to address the issue, Indigenous women continue to be targeted for violence at disproportionate rates. What insights can literature contribute where dominant anti-violence initiatives have failed? Centring the voices of contemporary Indigenous women writers, this book argues for the important role that literature and storytelling can play in response to gendered colonial violence. Indigenous communities have been organizing against violence since newcomers first arrived, but the cases of missing and murdered women have only recently garnered broad public attention. Violence Against Indigenous Women joins the conversation by analyzing the socially interventionist work of Indigenous women poets, playwrights, filmmakers, and fiction-writers. Organized as a series of case studies that pair literary interventions with recent sites of activism and policy-critique, the book puts literature in dialogue with anti-violence debate to illuminate new pathways toward action. With the advent of provincial and national inquiries into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, a larger public conversation is now underway. Indigenous women's literature is a critical site of knowledge-making and critique. Violence Against Indigenous Women provides a foundation for reading this literature in the context of Indigenous feminist scholarship and activism and the ongoing intellectual history of Indigenous women's resistance.
Stolen sisters : the story of two missing girls, their families and how Canada has failed Indigenous women by Call Number: E98.W8 W35 2015ISBN: 1443445169Publication Date: 2015An account of the author's investigation into violence against Indigenous women in Canada, with a focus on two young women who have been missing since 2008.
Keetsahnak / Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters by ISBN: 9781772123906Publication Date: 2018-06-04In Keetsahnak / Our Murdered and Missing Indigenous Sisters, the tension between personal, political, and public action is brought home starkly as the contributors look at the roots of violence and how it diminishes life for all. Together, they create a model for anti-violence work from an Indigenous perspective. They acknowledge the destruction wrought by colonial violence, and also look at controversial topics such as lateral violence, challenges in working with "tradition," and problematic notions involved in "helping." Through stories of resilience, resistance, and activism, the editors give voice to powerful personal testimony and allow for the creation of knowledge. It's in all of our best interests to take on gender violence as a core resurgence project, a core decolonization project, a core of Indigenous nation building, and as the backbone of any Indigenous mobilization.
In my own moccasins: a memoir of resilience by ISBN: 9780889776456Publication Date: 2019Helen Knott, a highly accomplished Indigenous woman, seems to have it all. But in her memoir, she offers a different perspective. In My Own Moccasins is an unflinching account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and the wounds brought on by sexual violence. It is also the story of sisterhood, the power of ceremony, the love of family, and the possibility of redemption. With gripping moments of withdrawal, times of spiritual awareness, and historical insights going back to the signing of Treaty 8 by her great-great grandfather, Chief Bigfoot, her journey exposes the legacy of colonialism, while reclaiming her spirit. Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw, and mixed Euro-descent woman living in Fort St. John, British Columbia. In 2016 Helen was one of sixteen global change makers featured by the Nobel Women's Initiative for being committed to end gender-based violence. Helen was selected as a 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author. This is her first book. Eden Robinson is the award-winning author of Monkey Beach, Son of a Trickster, and other novels. She is a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations.
If I Go Missing by Call Number: PN6733 .J66 2019ISBN: 9781459414518Publication Date: 2019-12-03If I Go Missing is derived from excerpts of a letter that went viral and was also the basis of a documentary film. In her letter, Jonnie calls out the authorities for neglecting to immediately investigate missing Indigenous people and urges them to "not treat me as the Indigenous person I am proud to be" if she were to be reported missing. Indigenous artist Neal Shannacappo provides the artwork. Through his illustrations, he imagines a situation in which a young Indigenous woman does disappear, portraying the reaction of her community, her friends, the police, and media.
In Spirit by Call Number: PS8603.E34 I6 2017ISBN: 9781770918061Publication Date: 2018-04-03Twelve-year-old Molly was riding her new bicycle on a deserted road when a man in a truck pulled up next to her, saying he was lost. He asked if she could get in and help him back to the highway, and said he could bring her back to her bike after. The next things Molly remembers are dirt, branches, trees, pain, and darkness. Molly is now a spirit. Mustering up some courage, she pieces together her short life for herself and her family while she re-assembles her bicycle--the same one that was found thrown into the trees on the side of the road. Juxtaposed with flashes of news, sounds, and videos, Molly's chilling tale becomes more and more vivid, challenging humanity to not forget her presence and importance.
Films on MMIWGM2S
The following films are available to stream from the TMU Libraries:
Finding Dawn, 2006, 1h 13 min, Documentary
Acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh brings us a compelling documentary that puts a human face on a national tragedy – the epidemic of missing or murdered Indigenous women in Canada. The film takes a journey into the heart of Indigenous women's experience, from Vancouver's skid row, down the Highway of Tears in northern BC, and on to Saskatoon, where the murders and disappearances of these women remain unsolved.
this river, 2016, 18 min, Documentary
This short documentary offers an Indigenous perspective on the devastating experience of searching for a loved one who has disappeared. Volunteer activist Kyle Kematch and award-winning writer Katherena Vermette have both survived this heartbreak and share their histories with each other and the audience. While their stories are different, they both exemplify the beauty, grace, resilience, and activism born out of the need to do something.
The Road Forward, 2017, 1 hr 41 min, Documentary
The Road Forward, a musical documentary by Marie Clements, connects a pivotal moment in Canada’s civil rights history—the beginnings of Indian Nationalism in the 1930s—with the powerful momentum of First Nations activism today. The Road Forward’s stunningly shot musical sequences, performed by an ensemble of some of Canada’s finest vocalists and musicians, seamlessly connect past and present with soaring vocals, blues, rock, and traditional beats. A rousing tribute to the fighters for First Nations rights, a soul-resounding historical experience, and a visceral call to action.
Highway of Tears, 2015, 1 hr 19 min, Documentary
"Highway of Tears" is about the missing or murdered women along a 724 kilometer stretch of highway in northern British Columbia. None of the 18 cold-cases since the 1960's had been solved, until project E-Pana (a special division of the RCMP) managed to link DNA to Portland drifter, Bobby Jack Fowler with the 1974 murder of 16 year-old hitchhiker, Colleen MacMillen. "WHY HAVEN'T THE KILLERS BEEN FOUND? IS THIS THE WORK OF ONE OR SEVERAL SERIAL KILLERS? " In Canada, over 600 Aboriginal women have been reported missing or been murdered since the 1960s. Viewers will discover what the effects of generational poverty, residential schools, systemic violence, and high unemployment rates have done to First Nations reserves and how they tie in with the missing and murdered women in the Highway of Tears cases. Aboriginal women are considered abject victims of violence. Now find out what First Nations leaders are doing to try and swing the pendulum in the other direction.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, CBC News
CBC News has probed 230 unsolved cases of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, confirming them through an exhaustive process that included checks with police, families, community leaders and other organizations. More than 110 families participated in interviews, recounting stories about their loved ones. They also described their experiences with the police. For more information, please visit the CBC interactive website Missing & Murdered: The Unsolved Cases of Indigenous Women and Girls.