Grassroots group sews skirts to help families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls heal – News 1130

VANCOUVER (CityNews) — A Cree woman who was living on the streets several years ago says Vancouver’s annual Women’s Memorial March turned her life around and she can now help other families heal.

Several years ago, Jamie Smallboy was a missing Indigenous woman herself when she was living on the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside struggling with addiction and losing touch with her culture.

But one day in 2011, the sound from the Women’s Memorial March honouring murdered and missing Indigenous women saved her life.

“I was really hungover in an alley. I heard drumming, I sat up and thought I was hearing things,” she explains. “I turned the corner and there was just a sea of Indigenous women singing and drumming and praying. I felt overwhelmed with emotion. I didn’t know that existed. I didn’t know as an Indigenous people we’re allowed to feel like that.”

Read More: https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/02/03/grassroots-group-sews-skirts-to-help-families-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-heal/