Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People

Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People has become an annual installation since 2016 for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence at the University of Waterloo.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the Bridge installation Opening Ceremony and Fire on Wednesday, November 3 at 1:00 pm at the bridge between Environment 3 and St. Paul's University College. The closing ceremony will be held on Friday, November 19 at 1:00 pm. 

We are grateful to Starbucks for their community support by offering coffee at the opening and closing of the event.

Working with Shatitsirótha’: the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre (WISC) Dr. Sorouja Moll initiated Bridge in 2016 to create a space for all University community members to learn about the crisis as they reflect upon their responsibilities, write a name on red fabric, and tie it to the bridge between Environment 3 and St. Paul's University College. This year we are including orange fabric with the red in remembrance of the lives of the children and youth who perished at the hands of institutional violence at residential schools. These local, regional, and national atrocities are profoundly and systemically interconnected. 

To maintain a safe environment by adhering to COVID-19 protocols, the 2021 installation will invite the public to read the names out loud as the red and orange fabric is tied to the bridge

The gesture of the installation to name, remember, and honour the 4000+ missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit people in Canada, and the act to acknowledge the widespread and egregious neglect of 7,000 + children and youth who perished because of systemic racism is an ongoing process of learning about, and engaging with, the depth of the crisis in Canada while disrupting the existing silence that continues to shroud it. Originally installed in Montreal in 2009, as The Writing Names Project, Moll's research-creation initiative is a counter memorial and is part of a meaningful and sustained collaborative intercultural praxis between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People 2019 Video