International Women's Day March Vancouver works to celebrate, amplify and fight alongside the diversity of women in our community to achieve equity and create awareness of issues self-identifying women in Vancouver face.
We stand for equity, and recognize intersectionality and diversity. These are often empty words, but in everything we do we strive to consider how each of those key words affect the individual communities that make up our larger community of self-identified women.
We aim to host the international women's day march every year in March as well as promote events hosted by grassroots organizations around Vancouver. We want to ensure everything we do creates a safe space for women and highlight the intersectional issues we face.
We will plan the international women's day march every year. We will call on our allies to recognize our struggles and fight alongside us. We will promote other events from our communities that aim to achieve equity. We will create a space for volunteers that is safe and inclusive. We will create a platform where we can educate and inform those in our community of the history, battles and victories of the women's equity movement.
"We have the human right to protest here and with so many injustices worldwide, isn't it our duty to do what others aren't able to do - what others have been imprisoned for?"
- IWD Vancouver Chair
We acknowledge that the Vancouver International Women’s Day committee is located on the Unceded Coast Salish Territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam),
Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem (Coquitlam), Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) Peoples. Unceded means
that this land was never surrendered, relinquished, or handed over in any way. Today, most of BC remains unceded sovereign Native lands, over which neither
the Canadian or BC government have the legal or moral authority to govern. We recognize that these communities are the original caretakers and stewards over
the lands and waters that we occupy.
This committee is dedicated to supporting the different strategies that Indigenous peoples are using to protect their land and their communities, and we
commit to dedicating time and resources to working in solidarity. Specifically, our committee recognizes the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP). This affirms the “fundamental importance of the right to self-determination of all peoples, by virtue of which they freely determine
their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” We feel it is also important to note the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action.
These 94 Calls to Action were made to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian
reconciliation.” In acknowledging UNDRIP and the Calls to Action, we are committing to implementing these articles into our organization’s policy, into strategic
planning, and mission within Vancouver.
We would further like to acknowledge the unique challenges that Indigenous women in British Columbia face. This includes the ongoing
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
(MMIWG2S+) Final Report and Calls for Justice. Indigenous women in Canada face increased violence as a result of ongoing underlying social, economic,
cultural, institutional, and historical causes.
This committee is dedicated to uplifting the voices of Indigenous women and two-spirit folks in British Columbia. We are privileged to settle on these
lands and aim to use our time here to actively create space and uplift Indigenous communities. We encourage all settlers of this land to continue the
ongoing process of education on Indigenous history and contemporary challenges and championing the 94 Calls to Action.
The Vancouver IWD committee members are first, second, and third-generation settlers of this land. Our ancestry includes Turkish, Danish, English,
Norwegian, Han-Chinese, Yoruba & Igarra, Nigerian, Greek, and German. We are now privileged and honoured to call these unceded lands home. Some of
our members were born on these lands, and others have been living here since 2021.
We acknowledge that we are located on the Unceded Coast
Salish Territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/
Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem (Coquitlam), Kwantlen, Katzie,
Semiahmoo, and Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) Peoples.
We
seek to support the different strategies that Indigenous peoples are
using to protect their land and their communities,
and we commit to
dedicating time and resources to working in solidarity.