Margaret Dragu 1 - Tuesday July 22, 2008

I had the pleasure of witnessing Margaret Dragu’s piece as performed for Paul Couillard on Sunday, but I didn’t really experience the piece fully until today when I took her to my site of justice/injustice.

I recently reviewed the excellent book about Montreal massacre memorials across Canada entitled “Murdered by Men”. So I knew there was a memorial here in Edmonton, one of the best in the country, one with explicitly feminist content, and I wanted it to be the place I took Margaret.

Every Canadian woman of a certain age remembers where she was when she heard about the massacre. It was so clearly a misogynist act (as framed by the perpetrator) and so clearly impersonal. When we heard about the 13 young women, we knew it could have been any of us, any woman who dared to inhabit the world previously delineated as male territory (which is, like, the ENTIRE world).

Of course the Montreal massacre monument isn’t in the City of Edmonton travel literature. I had to ask around to find it. The young man at the front desk of Grant MacEwan said, “Oh, it’s in the very worst part of town.” A chance meeting with an old friend led me there, and I in turn led Margaret in my quest for justice provided by Lady J.We sat at the foot of a statue dedicated to hope, surrounded by 13 trees each of which is marked with a plaque naming one of the murdered women. Margaret created a ring of salt, spit wine, crushed blossoms, and read cards marked with phrases pertinent to justice. As she enacted the ritual, mightily and with sword aloft, I knew I wouldn’t get anything close to resolution. Injustice marks us. But it nonetheless felt powerful, that SOMETHING was happening.

In the park a man screamed, pursued by his own demons. Another urinated behind us. Various people slept. The injustices of poverty and racism and a culture intolerant to mental illness joined our action/desire for justice for women. It all was very interconnected for a few moments. As Margaret’s card told me, “Justice is just us.”