If I went missing my family would always be plagued with the misery of the mystery; no closure, no justice. I know this because I am an Aboriginal woman, and we go missing everyday.
Read Christina Cook's If I Went MissingMy name is Christina J. Cook. I am a proud member of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation in Manitoba.
The attached one act play entitled “If I Went Missing” is a dramatization of an unfortunate reality for many Aboriginal families across Canada. From the Route 16 known as the highway of tears in Northern BC, to the downtown east side of Vancouver; from the quiet streets of the Pas Manitoba, to the North End of Winnipeg, and beyond our Aboriginal women are going missing in extraordinary numbers.
The Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge invites Aboriginal writers to write about moment in time or theme in Aboriginal history. It is a shameful state of affairs that this play could take place today, yesterday or fifty years ago. The moment in time I have chosen to write about is a the moment of loss, anger, frustration and sorrow for so many Aboriginal mothers and families who have lost daughters, granddaughters, sisters and mothers.
The phenomenon of missing Aboriginal women plays out across Canada. So often our women find themselves marginalized and forced to do what ever they have to in order to survive. This marginalization opens our women up to be preyed upon by monsters and ignored by our society’s social institutions that are sworn to protect them.
As an Aboriginal woman, I am all too aware of the dangers we face. I am lucky to not be in a marginalized position and faced with the tough choices of basic survival. I am lucky to have had the opportunities I have had and to have had parents who fought our way out of poverty. When I read the stories and hear from the families of missing women I am all too aware that but for a few simple lost opportunities or missed chances I too could have easily stayed in a life of poverty and marginalization. As an Aboriginal woman growing up in poverty I too could have easily gone missing and been murdered. When I think about how easily my fate could have changed, I think about what would have happened if I went missing.
Act 1
Scene 1
(Empty black stage, single spot light on an Aboriginal Woman, approximately 30 years old standing to the front stage left)
Young Woman: If I went missing, there would be no news bulletins.
If I went missing there would be no police searches.
If I went missing there would be no press conferences.
If I went missing there would be no crime stoppers posters or milk cartons.
If I went missing the media would not care, but they did cover it, they would focus on my faults, the lowest points of my life.
If I went missing my family would be all alone in their search for me.
If I went missing there would be no happy ending, no televised reunion.
If I went missing they wouldn’t even find my body, because they wouldn’t even look for it.
If I went missing my family would always be plagued with the misery of the mystery; no closure, no justice.
I know this because I am an Aboriginal woman, and we go missing everyday.
(Spot light cut, stage black,)
Scene 2
(60 year old Aboriginal woman, sitting in front of a desk, holding a baby. A little girl about five stands beside her holding tightly to her doll. Across from the woman, sitting at the desk is a police officer, looking distracted and casually taking notes)
Police Officer: You say she was wearing a green coat?
Older Woman: No, she was wearing a green hooded sweater shirt, with blue jeans and black shoes. She’s 120 pounds, five foot –
Police Officer: (holding his pen not taking notes) Right, yeah yeah. And you say she’s run off somewhere?
Older Woman: NO, she’s gone missing, she did not come home from school on Monday and she hasn’t been home for two days.
Police Officer: Are those hers? (he points to the baby and the little girl) Because you know sometimes these mothers just run off to get a break from the kids and you know have a good time, it’ was Canada day long weekend –
Older Woman: No you don’t underst-
Police Officer: (interrupts the woman) What kinds of high risk activities was your daughter involved in? Drugs, booze, prostitution. I see she was picked up at 18 for attempted solicitation, is she still hooking?
Older Woman: My daughter has been clean and sober for thirteen years; she’s 31 years old now that happened when she was a kid, a long time ago. She’s in university now; she has a job at –
Police Officer: (interrupts the woman) So she’s an addict, and she was into prostitution, you know to feed her habit? Maybe she’s you know off at a “party”? It only takes one hit to get these girls back on the stuff.
Older Woman: (the woman raises her voice, and the baby starts to cry) No – No, listen my daughter’s been sober for THIRTEEN YEARS,
Police Officer: Ma’am you know you have got to calm down here, I can’t talk to you when you’re hysterical. You know I think I got all the information I need. We’ll call you if we hear something.
(Lights go off, stage is black)
Scene 3
(Empty black stage, single spot light on the Young Woman standing to the front stage left)
Young Woman: But they didn’t call. They didn’t look.
(pause)
(stage right lights up to see the Older Woman pushing a stroller with the baby and being followed by the five year old girl, coming on to stage. She stops in front of a pole and takes a flyer from the stack she is carrying and tapes a missing poster to the pole. The poster is large and shows the smiling face of the Young Woman with the word “Missing” under it)
My mother alone tried plastered the city with posters. She went to Staples and had 500 copies made. She used a picture from my last birthday –
(the picture from the poster flashes onto a screen behind the Young Woman, she’s smiling and it looks like she has her arm around someone who has been cut out of the photo)
You can’t tell from the picture there, but I’m hugging my cousin Stacy in that pic. She got me this awesome birthday present, it was a spa gift certificate for her and I and we were supposed to go get manicures together.
(Pause)
But I never did go, we didn’t get the chance.
(Spot light cut, stage black)
Scene 4
(Pretty blonde woman in a business suite smiles and sits behind a desk. Behind her the screen shows a picture of a Christmas tree)
Blonde: (Laughs stiffly) Thanks Mark, I know all our junior channel 12 views out there made sure their parents saw that story. Only 20 more shopping days left until Christmas.
(Picture of a window and a dollar sign flash on the screen behind her)
Are you being left in the cold? You could be losing hundreds of dollars a year on your heating bill with so-called high efficiency windows if they we not installed properly. Up next a special report from Janet McKay on how to tell if your energy efficient windows are really saving you money.
(Picture of an outdoor Christmas decorations flash on the screen behind her)
And then later Crime Reporter Kelly Davidson will tell you of a recent wave of outdoor Christmas decorations vandalism that is hitting the affluent neighbourhood of Glendale. IS your lawn Santa safe?
(A mug shot of the Young Woman at 18 years old. The Young Woman looks hardened, and skinny, and defiant)
But first, a family of a local Aboriginal sex trade worker is asking for your help. If you have seen this woman please contact your local police.
(Picture of a window and a dollar sign flash on the screen behind her)
Now, are those high efficiency windows really saving you money? We now go to Janet McKay live at Samson’s Windows and Coverings for that story, Janet.
(Lights out, stage black)
Scene 5
(Empty black stage, single spot light on the Young Woman standing to the front stage left)
Young Woman: No one called, no one looked, no one cared.
(stage right lights up to see the Older Woman carrying a arm full of posters slowly walks. She stops in front of a pole and starts to a poster on to the pole. The poster is large and shows the smiling face of the Young Woman. The Older Woman walks off stage, the poster is flashed on screen, it shows the Younger Woman’s smiling but instead of the word “Missing” it has big block letters saying “REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON MISSING AND MURDERED WOMAN”)
By the spring time, my mother had stopped looking for me. I had been missing for over eight months. My mother stopped looking for me because she knew I was dead.
She hadn’t stopped loving me, or missing me, or wanting me to come home, it’s just she knew that if I was alive, I would have fought to find my way back home, to my babies and to her. But I hadn’t. I hadn’t come home.
So by the spring time she stopped looking for me and started looking for information on what happened to me, she started looking for justice.
For the past eight months she would walk the streets, looking for me, handing out posters. She did a double take every time she saw a girl with a long black pony tail.
Now instead of walking the streets she marches.
(Twenty people start to slowly march across the stage, walking in a line. Each person carrying a candle or holding a sign with a picture of an Aboriginal woman on it, quietly a drum beat can be heard)
My mother now marches the streets at candle-lit vigils. Calling for change, calling for justice. She marches with the families and friends of other missing Aboriginal women. Women like me that went missing … that were murdered … that were never found.
My mother marches seeking justice and seeking answers. What happened to me? Why didn’t anyone look for me? Why doesn’t anyone care?
My mother marches so that I won’t be forgotten, marches so that someone will take notice.
She marches because deep down she fears that in raising my two daughters she is raises two more lambs for the slaughter and like me they be taken, used, and discarded – A silent slaughter of our Aboriginal daughters, granddaughters, sisters, mothers, and friends.
(Spot light goes out on the Young woman. The only lights on stage are from the candles people are carrying. The people continue to slowly march across the stage, the drum beat gets louder. After all the people pass the stage is completely dark, the drumming gets louder and faster and then abruptly stops.)
Cast:
Young Aboriginal Woman, approximately 30 years old.
Older Aboriginal Woman, approximately 60 years old.
Aboriginal baby girl, under two years of age.
Aboriginal little girl, approximately five years old.
Police Officer (male or female)
Blonde pretty newscaster.
Props:
Screen and projector, with photos the following photos:
- Smiling photo of the young Aboriginal Woman
- Mug shot of the young Aboriginal Woman
- Christmas Tree (newscast)
- Windows & dollar signs (newscast)
- Christmas lawn decorations (newscast)
- Poster of the Smiling photo with the bold block lettering “REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON MISSING AND MURDERED WOMAN”
Stroller
Doll
Desk
Police Uniform/Hat
Pole
Posters and tape.