SOU groups to screen “Highway of Tears” documentary
SOU’s Native American Student Union and the Women’s Resource Center have partnered to offer a Jan. 16 screening and discussion of the documentary film “Highway of Tears: Preventing Violence against Women.” The event will begin at 6 p.m. in Room 330 of the Stevenson Union.
The film examines the effects of generational poverty, residential schools, systemic violence and high unemployment rates on Canada’s First Nations reserves – areas that have been set aside for native people by Canadian states. More than 600 indigenous women have been murdered or reported missing in Canada since the 1960s.
“Highway of Tears” is about those who have been murdered or gone missing along a 450-mile stretch of highway in northern British Columbia. None of 18 cold-case murders going back as far as 50 years had been solved, until project E-Pana – a special division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – linked DNA to Portland drifter Bobby Jack Fowler in the 1974 murder of 16 year-old hitchhiker Colleen MacMillen.
Canada has declared missing and murdered indigenous women a national crisis, but the issue extends into the United States.
SOU’s Native American Student Union and Women’s Resource Center will invite those who attend the Jan. 16 event to learn and become active in addressing the international problem.
The Native American Student Union, which is open to all students, operates under the umbrella of SOU’s Multicultural Resource Center. It offers social and educational support to Native American students, raises awareness of Native American cultures and issues, and sponsors educational and cultural programs.
The Women’s Resource Center provides education and support to women and people of all genders, working to overcome oppression, sexism, hate and inequality.