A local UNBC professor has written quite a stirring and eye opening essay recently, which garnered enough attention to win a pair of Western Magazine awards as well as a provincial award for the BC/Yukon.
Sarah De Leeuw’s essay “Soft Shouldered” appeared in the literary journal “Prism International” and humanizes the stories of missing aboriginal women who have been killed or gone missing on the stretch of road between Prince George and Prince Rupert also known as the Highway of Tears.
De Leeuw’s passion about the subject was evident, and she says even one missing or murdered woman is too many:
“I think for some terrifying reason violence against particularly indigenous women is somehow naturalized and normalized, we don’t think about it, it ceases to grab at our hearts and sock us in the guts in ways that motivate us to action, and it shouldn’t be normalized. It should never be placed on a back burner.
Soft Shouldered was also a National Magazine award finalist earlier this year.