On Saturday, January 21, at least 214 Bowen Islanders (and quite a few dogs!) assembled outside the Library at 9:45 am. Many people were decked out in pink hats, scarves, jackets, and even garden baskets, and waving pink placards. The Knick Knack Nook is reported to have sold all its pink items to marchers scrambling to find pink things to wear! The crowd included women of all ages, children, infants, babes in arms, and men.
Susanna Braund, organizer of the Bowen March, kicked off the event by explaining why she was marching: “I am marching because women’s rights just suffered a terrible setback south of the border and I wanted to make a protest and to commit to working even harder for social justice because women’s rights are human rights. It is 2017 and I think that it is not okay that women still get paid significantly less than men for the same work; that it is not okay that women still shoulder more than half of the domestic labour in households, unpaid; and that it is not okay that women do nearly all of the emotional labour in the world. I commit to working to reduce domestic violence against women, to protecting women’s reproductive rights, and to standing up for the LGBTQ community, for First Nations rights, and for the planet Earth, which is now under direct attack from the climate change deniers.”
Susanna then invited others to share their reasons for marching. These reasons included “for my daughter,” “for the next generations of women,” “against the rise of fascism and bullies,” “for my wife and daughters,” “for and in serenity not anger,” for “respect,” and “for education.”
Islanders marched to The Causeway and gathered at the lagoon at 10 am for a minute of silence in solidarity with the other marchers all across the world. They then listened to a Buddhist prayer about the golden chain of love that stretches around the world and to Pauline Le Bel performing a song she had composed for the event. Finally, everyone joined in singing ‘This Little Light of Mine.’
Miki Tanaka and her husband Bob Schultz moved from New York City at the end of November, and say that the March on Bowen helped them to feel connected to their friends marching in New York, Washington and elsewhere.
“Arriving here just after the election, we felt sad and torn. Everyone,including myself, was so depressed about the political situation, and it was hard to be away from our friends when they were suffering. On top of that, Bowen is so peaceful we felt extra disconnected,” says Tanaka. “But it feels really good to be a part of a community that is willing to step up and acknowledge what is happening.”
Tanaka adds that every, single one of her friends back in New York City marched on Saturday.
The Women’s March website run by actionnetwork.org recorded 673 marches all over the world with 155 people registered to march on Bowen Island. Nearly five million people on all seven continents (including Antarctica!) joined together to march for social justice, for women’s rights, for diversity, for respect, for peace, and for love. The march is being described as the largest of its kind in US history—and possibly the world!
Thanks to Susanna Braund and Carol Cram for their assistance with this article.
