Culhane, Dara (2003).

Their spirits live within us: Aboriginal women in downtown eastside Vancouver emerging into visibility. American Indian Quarterly, 27(3/4), 593606. Story happened in down town eastside Vancouver. A place being viewed as a containment zone, including: illegal drugs and prostitutions. 1991 aboriginal and non-aboriginal womens organization in inner city Vancouver declared February 14 of remembrance to honor neighborhood women who have been murdered or disappeared. This is a protest against racism, poverty and violence against women. Celebrate resistance, solidarity and survival. These women has struggled to stay alive , change material, symbolic condition of existence for women who come after them. Under Non liberal mode of governance: Regime of disappearance Selectively marginalized and erases categories of people through strategies of representation that include silences, blind spots, and displacements that have both material and symbolic effects. The reason why these aboriginal women struggle (3 ways) 1. People would choose to focus on drugs, sex, violence and crime but not ordinary life with everyday poverty. 2. Medicalization and pathologizing of poverty 3. Lack of interest in making a difference for the above situations. Canadian elites make it sounds natural by labeling it as a colonialism post effect. race blindness. Coast Salish people occupied City of Vancouver. The aboriginals were relocated in the poorest neighborhoods of Canadian societies. (at the bottom of socioeconomic hierarchy. Downtown eastside is the inner city where all the drug dealers, sex workers are located. In fact many people are suffering from mental illness caused by deinstitutionalized or simply being too poor to move elsewhere. Since they are so poor, drug dealing and commercial sex are produced. However, poverty is being identified as the outcome of drug addition. Aboriginal women are more easily to get HIV/ AIDS with the risk factors of age, education, marital status. the worst burdens are always happening on those who have least economic and political power. Social workers describes clients as marginal, poor, socially excluded. multi generational poverty. Aboriginal women are forced to work in the most dangerous and lowest paying tracks to earn money. Most of them are under age of 26 they are mothers. Oppositely, non aboriginal women are working on safer and higher earning

Culhane, Dara (2003). Their spirits live within us: Aboriginal women in downtown eastside Vancouver emerging into visibility. American Indian Quarterly, 27(3/4), 593606. areas. But most of the time when men would like to find these services would definitely choose to go to cheaper places to buy license to commit violence, degrade women. acknowledge the specific vulnerability and over exposure of aboriginal women to sexual exploitation, violence, and murder that has historically and continues contemporarily, to be a fact of Canadian life. These racial degradation acts have created many missing and murdered women. Even when relatives and friends were trying to alert polices and authorities, they were ignored. The mayor of Vancouver claims that public monies would not be spent running a location service for prostitutes. When over half of the missing women are aboriginal women, the media would still illustrate the report using a white woman. This act has lowered public sense on problems that aboriginals face. 1970, 1980s feminist organization provides space for women to hide from public and private violence. The Valentines day Marches is for highlighting: poverty, racism, violence against sex workers, HIV/ AIDS and addiction. That is faced by women. Started in 2001 march. Many aboriginal, young asian women, white women, few African Canadian women and handful of men joined. Many middle age , elderly aboriginal women stood up, claim themselves as street moms, hoping to keep young people off the street. It is Europeans patriarchal values and structures that were forced into indigenous societies, displacing women from the position of respect they held traditionally. Other speakers during the march complained about the health and social service in that area. Since the area are mostly filled with aboriginals, they hope to have half of the staff native. This area is: lack of treatment facilities for drug and alcohol recovery. Follow up care, lack of safe, secure housing, discriminatory, child apprehension practices. Slow police response on domestic/ street violence. Lack of jobs, below welfare The spirit behind is anticolonial. They believe it is important to change the system to stop the viscous cycle going again. Parents dead foster home street kid, drugs find roots dead violently next generation The authority denied their legitimacy of the case because those missing persons are mostly prostitutes, addicts and aboriginals. However, they deserve equal rights as they are also human. They are being viewed as the poorest and marginalized women in Canada but they actually do deserve respect and dignity.

Culhane, Dara (2003). Their spirits live within us: Aboriginal women in downtown eastside Vancouver emerging into visibility. American Indian Quarterly, 27(3/4), 593606. The political motion in BC has adopted the right wing liberals which cut welfare services and these marginalized women suffer. Even so, a group breaking ht silence provide safe housing, health and social services for neighborhood women. Providing a shelter from violence, theft, companionship and non judgmental support for women in recovery who might be falling into the viscous cycle of their mother. Aboriginal women has shown strong sense that they are united to make a difference for their next generation. They would like to make a difference to fight against poverty and racism to create a better world, since they are also human and they deserve the right and dignity to stay at the place they belong.