Garden to memorialize missing women, girls
Missing and murdered women and girls in Newfoundland and Labrador will soon be memorialized with a commemorative garden at the St. John’s Status of Women Council.
Jenny Wright, executive director of the council, says the annual In Her Name memorial, organized in partnership with the Native Friendship Centre, is just one way missing and murdered women are remembered. They felt something more permanent was needed.
“We’ve often thought that that really isn’t enough, that there has to be a place in the community where we remember the women in Newfoundland and Labrador who are murdered and missing,” said Wright.
The garden is funded in part through a grant from the Department of Justice.
Tim Grant, a horticulturalist with Memorial University’s Botanical Garden, was brought in to help design the memorial garden. Murray’s Garden Centre is working to complete the garden, which will be officially unveiled in a few weeks.
The St. John’s Native Friendship Centre has also been brought in to help design the garden, to ensure plants and flowers with significance to the Indigenous community are included in the memorial.
Wright says more consultation will happen over the next few weeks to ensure families of those lost have their say in how their family members are remembered.
“We’re going to have a plaque on it, as well, that memorializes the women. We want to work with the families and get their input to find out what we should have on that plaque,” said Wright.
Purple lights will also be installed along the garden to cast a purple sheen upon the garden.
The garden will be called In Her Name, to echo the annual vigil.
“It’s going to have a very large central tree, a gorgeous white spruce, to symbolize their memory,” said Wright.
“We wanted it to be in the community. We wanted it to be a reminder to people who drive by that those women are not forgotten. Sadly, we’re in a world where we forget about what happened until we hear about the next tragic death or missing woman, or the vigil happens. We want a constant reminder that we all have to be vigilant toward an end to violence.”
Any families of missing or murdered women and girls are asked to get in touch with the St. John’s Status of Women Council to have their input.