Book

McDiarmid, Jessica, author.

Highway of Tears : a true story of racism, indifference and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls / Jessica McDiarmid.

First Atria Books hardcover edition.

New York : Atria Books, 2019.

xiii, 331 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

In the vein of the astonishing and eye-opening bestsellers <i>I'll Be Gone in the Dark <i>and <i>The Line Becomes a River<i>, this stunning work of investigative journalism follows a series of unsolved disappearances and murders of Indigenous women in rural British Columbia.

"An explosive examination of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Highway 16, and a searing indictment of the society that failed them. For decades, women--overwhelmingly from Indigenous backgrounds--have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern B.C. The highway is called the Highway of Tears by locals, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. In Highway of Tears, Jessica McDiarmid meticulously explores the effect these tragedies have had on communities in the region, and how systemic racism and indifference towards Indigenous lives have created a culture of "over-policing and under-protection," simultaneously hampering justice while endangering young Indigenous women. Highway of Tears will offer an intimate, first-hand look at the communities along Highway 16 and the families of the victims, as well as examine the historically fraught social and cultural tensions between settler and Indigenous peoples that underlie life in the region. Finally, it will link these cases with others found across Canada--estimated to number over 1,200--contextualizing them within a broader examination of the undervaluing of Indigenous lives in the country and of our ongoing failure to provide justice for the missing and murdered"-- Provided by publisher.

A bright light -- A brick wall -- Part of you is missing -- Falling through the cracks -- The not knowing -- An inch shy of a mile -- Blatant failures -- It depends who's bleeding -- Rising tides -- Breaking a spirit -- This we have to live with every day -- Where were you twenty years ago? -- Canada's dirtiest secret -- Winding down -- The last walk.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Missing persons -- British Columbia, Northern.

Murder victims -- British Columbia, Northern.

Indigenous women -- Crimes against -- British Columbia -- Prevention.

Indigenous women -- Violence against -- British Columbia.

Indigenous women -- Violence against -- British Columbia -- Prevention.

Indigenous women -- Crimes against -- British Columbia, Northern.

Indigenous women -- British Columbia -- Social conditions.

Canada -- Race relations.

9781501160288

1501160281

9781501160288 (HRD)

1501160281 (HRD)

1125266869

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2200395