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When an outsider paints the DTES missing women

This story is Part One in a three-part series on the cancellation of Pamela Masik’s “The Forgotten” portrait collection from the UBC Museum of Anthropology, originally scheduled to run February 15 – March 21, 2011. Read Part Two: With "The Forgotten," MOA sought to open conversation about murdered and missing women. 

Artist Pamela Masik painted portraits for her collection "The Forgotten" using the RCMP Missing Women poster. (Photo courtesy of the Missing Women Task Force)


Last night I spoke at a National Conference at SFU talking about 'The Forgotten” Project. There was so much hostility in the room by a group of women from the DTES [Downtown Eastside]…These women are so drowned in their own stories and take claim on the loss of lives, passionately taking ownership of any of the inherent problems that were the cause of this tragedy… These women are so blind and deaf to any greater perspective on the issues, that illustrate they are not theirs to own.

-  Pamela Masik’s blog post “The Conference Was Hijacked,” August 14, 2010

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