Hiatus House now has a healing garden dedicated to women and children killed by femicide.
It held a small gathering of about 30 people last Thursday to dedicate the garden, which opened with a song by Elder Indigenous Healing Coordinator Theresa Simms.
The garden was designed and donated by the Greater Windsor Horticultural Society. It will display a distinctly different view with each season.
"It's our hope that the families, dedicated staff and partners of Hiatus House will find a bit of peace and beauty there," said Lori Thwaites with the society. "Creating the healing garden was a significant project and was so meaningful for many of us."
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transitional Homes maintains an annual list of those women killed simply because they were women. Last year, the number was 43, based on media reports of femicide. The tally does not include cases of femicide that were not publicized.
In the past six years, ten women in Windsor-Essex have been killed by gender-based violence.
"We honour the women and girls whose lives were stolen by femicide, as well as those exposed to intimate partner violence and gender-based violence," said Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky. "We renew our commitment to ending this epidemic. The Healing Garden is a powerful reminder that every life lost mattered, every family deserves justice, and every survivor deserves safety and support."
Two family members also shared their stories of losing a loved one to femicide.
"We are not planting a memory in this garden," said Fartumo Kusow. "We are planting a movement that turns silence into the collective power that protects the next daughter, the next woman, the next family."
In remembrance of those who have been killed by femicide, butterflies were released into the garden.
