"(listen to the women)": Rethinking Representations of Violence Against Indigenous Women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Abstract

This thesis investigates contemporary representations of violence against Indigenous women in Vancouverâs Downtown Eastside. I argue that sensationalist representations of violence serve to distance readers from their own implication in systems of colonial violence and sever individual acts of violence from their broader colonial context. In contrast, I turn in my first chapter to a memoir written by the sister of one of Vancouverâs missing women. I argue that, although this text eschews the sensationalism of mainstream coverage and seeks to humanize the victims of violence, its political potential is circumscribed by its unacknowledged Western cultural investments. In my second chapter, I take up the work of Mohawk/Tuscarora poet Janet Marie Rogers alongside first-hand narratives of women from the DTES. Together, these representations offer a more nuanced understanding of ongoing violence in Canada and a vision for a decolonial future that moves to reconnect Indigenous women to the land.