Portraits inspired by pain

By Teresa Mallam
Free Press
Oct 27 2006

Betty Kovacic puts down her brush and looks sadly into the eyes of the young woman she has just finished painting. “Her name is Sherry Irving. She’s been missing since April 1997, from the east side of Vancouver.”

The artist was at Two Rivers Gallery on Tuesday, putting final touches to her work.

Her acrylic and mixed media painting is the last of 50 portraits of missing or murdered women that Kovacic has brought to life on canvas. The women’s pain can be found in their eyes and their mouth.

An exhibit of her work is scheduled for September 2007.

“Now that the portraits are done, the next stage is to bring everything together for the exhibit,” said Kovacic.

“We are planning for a room full of women who will have a voice. When I began this project in 2002, there were 50 women named on police posters and pictured on internet listings of missing and murdered women. Those are the ones I painted. Since then, more women have been added, so I found a way to represent them in the exhibit.”

Kovacic drew inspiration from her heartfelt belief that the women – many of them sex trade workers and runaways – have been marginalized. Both in their lives and after their disappearance or death.

“People tend talk about them as a collective. I wanted people to see them as individuals. As human beings. Not disposable objects. That’s why I chose to paint them all,” she said. “Painting these women has been a very long and painful process for me. I’ve cried over each one.”

To prepare for the exhibit, Kovacic, an art instructor at CNC, began collaborating with friends and other artists.

“Broek Bosma is creating music for each woman and [UNBC professor} Deborah Poff is working on an audio component. Michelle Worth [Counselling and Assessment Services] helped get me started with canvases and some paints. The installation was left up to me.”

The rest is up to the community.

“We could use donations for technical assistance, recording music, putting 50 music delivery systems in place and for our catalog.” Kovacic hopes the exhibit will go on tour and raise awareness about the “forgotten” women. And put a face and voice to each one.

The pain in her paintings comes from the tragic stories of dead and missing women. It also comes from her own, personal pain. Soon after the project began, Kovacic’s husband of 21 years, Blaine Ozust, was diagnosed with cancer. He died before her work was done.

“It was hard to paint but I felt I had to. I didn’t paint much while my husband was going through his treatments because I spent my time caring for him,” she said. She went from his bedside to her easel, trying to paint.

“Blaine was very supportive of this project and my art. He did my framing for me. Everyone rallied around me, my students, friends and family. But I think I poured my grief onto the women I was painting – and I was already grieving for them. So it was a very, hard time.”

For twenty years, Kovacic has used her art to communicate social and political issues.

Always lingering in the background was a poignant reminder.

“My mother is from Yugoslavia. She spent five terrible years in a Nazi concentration camp. She was not Jewish, she was a political prisoner. I remember her stories about being objectified and losing their power. That stayed with me. Like my mother, these women have painful stories about having no identity and becoming objects in survival sex. These are women with no choices because of poverty issues and lack of support.”

Many of the women are from Vancouver area but some are from northern BC, she said.

During the police investigation, the women became “not even body parts, just DNA” said Kovacic. She added they will be “dissected” further during the court process.

Indeed, in her letter of support, Maggie de Vries (her sister Sarah was murdered and her DNA found on Robert Pickton’s farm in August 2002) said:

“Please give Betty’s project the support that it needs to be realized, so many other family members and the public can experience it. And so that these missing women can be celebrated and remembered in art at the same time that a lengthy trial will be dismembering them.”

Anyone who wants to contribute to Betty Kovacic’s Room of Missing Women project can make donations to Two Rivers Gallery.

© Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

Film leaves lasting impression

Jeff DeDekker
The Leader-Post

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Five years after its release, Senorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman) is still having an impact on society.

The documentary, released in 2001 by renowned filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, tells the story of the disappearance of more than 300 young women from Juarez, Mexico, dating back to 1993.

When the Mexican authorities refused to commit resources to finding the killers, Portillo took it upon herself to bring their stories to the fore. The film resulted in the situation becoming a world issue with the Organization of American States, Amnesty International and numerous women's groups joining the search for justice.
The film has changed the way Mexicans think about the persecution of women.

"In terms of consciousness, I think what has happened in Mexico is that the Mexicans have become aware that this is not only happening in Juarez," says Portillo. "It's happening in Chihuahua, it's happening in Sinaloa, it's happening all over the Republic. There's now a word to describe what is happening: Femincide. That's what there calling it.

"Such a state of awareness was not with us at all before and I think, sadly, it's because this issue has come up before in the world. We know that in Guatemala that thousands of girls have been killed and the reason that they have not been given any attention is partly due to the fact that they are indigenous women. They are seen as easily disposable, worthless to society so who cares who kills them? This can go on endlessly."

The attitudes, however, haven't changed completely. The Mexican government has made an appearance of moving forward against the problem but Portillo is convinced it's a sham.

"President Fox named a commissioner to eradicate violence against women. She has the title but she has no power," says Portillo. "She has no power really to change things. She kind of ameliorated the big pain.

"Those are the changes in terms of the government."

No one has been convicted in any of the cases of the missing women. Mexican authorities have arrested and charged many suspects but the lack of decisive evidence has hampered the prosecution of cases.

Portillo is convinced that there is a link, involving powerful people, between the drug trade and the missing women.

"I think the killers are people in very high places," explains Portillo. "There's a net of complicity between the people who kidnap them, the people who hold them hostage, the killers themselves, who are in a very high place economically and I think they're linked with people in high places legally. And the authorities have also been involved in that.

"The unfortunate thing in Mexico with what is happening and what we really haven't addressed in the United States is the fact that Mexico is falling into the grip of narcotics trafficking in the same way as Colombia. Consequently, it corrupts every part of society. So when the most powerful are involved in these crimes it's very easy for them to cover it up. That's how so many girls can go missing, so many people cannot be found by the authorities. There's no other way."

Portillo arrived in Regina on Thursday to participate in Missing and Taken: A Symposium. The event, sponsored by the Dunlop Art Gallery, in collaboration with Women's Studies, University of Regina, featured panel discussions, a lecture by Portillo and a screening of the film Friday. Today's schedule, which runs from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., features presentations by artists, writers and community organizations at the RPL Theatre.

By taking her film, which has garnered numerous honours from film festivals around the world, on the road, Portillo hopes to keep the pressure on the authorities.
"The demand is for justice, that is the real demand," says Portillo. "Capture the killers and punish the killers to put a stop to it."

Portillo has a simple explanation why the film, awarded the Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, has been so successful.

"The key to this film is the fact that I'm focused on the mothers of these girls and the people on the front lines of the struggle," says Portillo. "I'm so happy that I can give this to my children. This is what is important. This is worth suffering for. I feel gratified that I've done my life's work."

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2006

Addressing the issues

By Bill Phillips
Free Press

Oct 25, 2006

The first thing Lisa Krebs does when talking about her new role as coordinator for the Highway of Tears initiative is to recognize the families of those who have lost loved ones.

One of her first tasks will be to establish a governing body that will oversee what she does. The position stems from a report released earlier this year that lists everything from free bus rides to more police officers as ways to stop women from hitchhiking along Hwy. 16 from Prince George to Prince Rupert.

That stretch of road has been dubbed the Highway of Tears because at least 10 young women, all but one of whom is aboriginal, have disappeared since 1974.

“There are lots of linkages that have to be made, a lot of change in police,” she said Friday, her first day on the job. “The governing body will help with that.”
The governing body will be comprised of families of victims, the RCMP, rural First Nations representatives, urban aboriginal representatives, and Highway 16 municipalities.

Her job will focus on the 33 recommendations outlined in the Highway of Tears Symposium report, issued earlier this year. Of the 33 recommendations, 15 focused on victim prevention, six on emergency planning, six on victim family counselling, and six on community development and support.

It’s a lot more than just teaching people about the perils of hitchhiking. It’s about social change, said Krebs when asked about why she applied for the job. She said she identified with the recommendations in the report.

“As an aboriginal woman, I believe change comes from the community,” she said.
Her background is in planning, she completed a bachelor’s degree in First Nations Studies from the University of Northern BC and a Masters of Anthropology from the University of Alberta. She has worked in many capacities with various First Nations communities in the north.

As for her work as the Highway of Tears initiative coordinator will mean tackling some large, large issues as the initiative will look at why people are on the road hitchhiking.

“People need to step outside of their own reality,” she said. “This is more than just people standing out on the highway, there are reasons they are standing out on the highway.”

Poverty is an issue, as is providing recreation opportunities for youth. As Krebs stated, it’s about social change.

However, there will be other aspects to her job as well, such as education campaigns. University students will be targeted and simple things such as billboards might be part of education campaigns. Crisis response plans also have to be developed. It’s a big job, and Krebs won’t be doing it alone. The governing body will help, but she is also relying on help from people and communities along Highway 16 – which she will be travelling extensively in the near future.

Another aspect of her job will be fundraising. The symposium report originally called for two coordinators – one in Prince George and one in Prince Rupert. Krebs’ job will be to secure funding for that second coordinator. Some applications for grant money have already been submitted, but she will be seeking more funding.
And the job is not without its detractors. Working out of the Carrier Sekani Family Services building, Krebs said the office has received calls saying the initiative is a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. She says she reminds herself of what Mary Tegee of Carrier Sekani Family Services told her.

“If we save one person, then it’s all worth it.”

© Copyright 2006 Prince George Free Press

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John signs boomerang

Posted warnings actually encourage men seeking sex, say some Beverly residents

By MAX MAUDIE, EDMONTON SUN
October 22, 2006

A Beverly business owner says the Report-a-John program is a bust because it draws would-be johns to her neighbourhood.

Sharon Rondeau said the anti-prostitution signs erected along 118 Avenue as part of the program show trolling men they're in the right spot to buy sex.

"It's advertising," said Sharon Rondeau of Lancasters Billiards, 4539 118 Avenue. "Well, at least I'm at the right street," she said in a mocking tone.

The Report-a-John program launched in early July. Signs were peppered along 118 Avenue saying prostitution wouldn't be tolerated.

Citizens can call police at 421-2656 - posted on the sign - to report licence plate numbers and other related information on motorists trolling the avenue for sex.

Prostitute Carol-Lynn Strachan, who had once left the streets but found herself on her old haunts earlier this year, said the "trolls" just follow the signs.

"They're a virtual road map," she said. "It's like red lights."

Kate Quinn, who heads the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton, acknowledged the signs may tell johns they're in a hot spot for sex.

But the signs also tell johns "city streets are being watched," said Quinn. "So I would see it differently. We're saying, 'so you're a newcomer to Edmonton. Edmonton streets are not places for you to cruise.'"

And she noted that starting tomorrow, police officers will be able to seize cars that are used to pick up hookers.

Rondeau said she still uses the Report-A-John system. She collects licence plate numbers and passes them on to police.

Despite this, she says she continues to see a flow of new prostitutes and johns in the area.

Ibrahim Gharabli, who owns nearby Gharabli automotive, said he's a big fan of the Report-A-John signs.

"We want to live in the nice neighbourhood," he said.

Other local business owners, who wanted to remain anonymous, said it's tough to tell whether prostitution has gone up or down since the program was introduced. But they agree the police have been much more visible in the area.