Time to remember
My name is Lori-Ann Campbell and I am the aboriginal women’s violence prevention co-ordinator for the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre, a position that is sponsored by the Women’s Policy Office of the provincial government.
During the month of March, our centre will be participating in the Faceless Dolls Project, sponsored by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). Last year, the NWAC created a travelling exhibit of 600-plus felt dolls to represent the lives of aboriginal women who are missing or have been murdered in Canada over the past decades.
This year the NWAC is calling on aboriginal women to create their own faceless doll exhibit for display in their communities. The St. John’s Native Friendship Centre has slightly adapted the project to include all women and children from our province that are missing or have been murdered in the past few decades. Representing the diversity of the urban aboriginal community, the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre recognizes that most Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have been hurt by violence against women and children, either through family members or friends, or their felt response to news media stories surrounding these events. For this reason the broader theme of this project is that each negative statistic tells a story about a beautiful Newfoundland and Labrador woman or child taken too soon.
The St. John’s Native Friendship Centre is inviting the Newfoundland and Labrador public to participate in the faceless dolls project by attending our planned workshop, hearing the story of the 600-plus murdered and missing aboriginal women across Canada and making a doll of their own for our display.
We are also asking for the public’s and surviving family members’ assistance with bringing the names and personal stories of the 60-plus murdered and missing Newfoundland and Labrador women and children forward, so that no one is forgotten or left behind.
I can be reached at LCampbell@sjn fc.com for more information and feedback on this important project. Lori-Ann Campbell St. John’s