Portland Public Library

Highway of Tears, a true story of racism, indifference, and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Jessica McDiarmid

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-321) and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Highway of Tears

bibliography

1125266869

Jessica McDiarmid

a true story of racism, indifference, and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

Provides an examination of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Highway 16, and an 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 British Columbia. The highway is called the Highway of Tears by locals, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. McDiarmid 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. The author offers a 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, McDiarmid links 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. --From publisher description

A bright light -- A brick wall -- Part of you is missing -- Falling through the cracks -- The not knowing -- An inch shy of a mile -- Blatant failures -- It depends who's bleeding -- Rising tides -- Breaking a spirit -- This we have to live with every day -- Where were you twenty years ago? -- Canada's dirtiest secret -- Winding down -- The last walk -- Epilogue: A safer place

True story of racism, indifference, and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls