Around 100 people gathered at the Shelter Island Marina on a somber Saturday afternoon to honour 20-year-old Indigenous woman Tatyanna Harrison, as well as Noelle (Ellie) O'Soup and Chelsea Poorman.
Family, friends and supporters shared speeches and songs and later laid flowers, photos and candles by the yacht on which Tatyanna's body was found.
"On September 29, 2001, a 9-pound 14-ounce baby was born. Tatyanna was immediately loved by anyone who gazed into those big beautiful brown eyes and her magic didn't stop there.
"A deeply compassionate child, she grew to discover her words, and her thirst for knowledge," said Natasha Harrison, Tatyanna's mother, recalling Tatyanna's love for books such as Harry Potter and Divergent.
She questioned police's investigation into Tatyanna's disappearance, stating that if they had done their jobs, "families wouldn't be left with all these questions."
"You swept her case under the rug. Tatyanna's worth so much more than you're willing to give her. And now the world's left without her," said Natasha.
Tatyanna was found dead in May inside a yacht after she was last seen alive in March with a man in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). Natasha had reported her missing in May. Last week, Richmond RCMP told The Richmond News that the investigation "is concluded."
O'Soup and Poorman's family members echoed Natasha's sentiments regarding VPD.
O'Soup, 13, had gone missing from a Port Coquitlam group home for children in foster care in May 2021. Her remains were found a year later inside a Vancouver SRO. Poorman, 24, went missing in Vancouver in September 2020 after grabbing dinner with her sister and attending a party on Granville Street. Her remains were discovered outside an empty mansion on Granville Street in April 2022.
"It's really important that we come together this way, not just to advocate and raise our voices about ending the violence against Indigenous women, girls, Two-spirit and the gender-diverse class.
"It's also about sharing and supporting one another in these difficult times," said Chief Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
Wilson believes it is important to call out the existing system, including RCMP and VPD, for its failure to support Indigenous communities.
"We don't get a lot of support that's supposed to be out there from the police or the justice system, or even the social systems that are supposed to be out there for these kinds of things. It's almost like we're always invisible," she said.
"But when we come together, we're not invisible. We have a voice. We have support."
The vigil was organized by Butterflies in Spirit, a dance group made up of family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) MMIWG2S.
