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memorial by Fif Fernandes The Women's Monument: Marker of Change "W"stood silently, arm and arm with over one thousand I women, children, and men: together we formed a A - . i c i c d circle. The ritual was accompanied by music that was surreal and haunting, yet filled with serenity and peace. This was the unveiling of The Women's Monument, Marker of Change. December 6, 1989 -- a nightmare. Another massacre. Another blood bath. Another atrocity committed: the brutal murder of 14 innocent women, most of whom were engineering students at Montreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique. Chris McDowell, a Capilano College student at the time of the massacre./eeled in shock when she heard news of the murder in Montreal. "There were so many, all at once. It was very frightening." For months, the name of the murderer was splattered over all the print and electronic media. "He achieved this notoriety that was so unjust," remembers McDowell, "and there were so many women killed, and how could anyone remember all those women's names? I saw it as a pattern in our society how certain things are remembered and how women are forgotten." As a victim and a survivor of violence. McDowell identified with the women killed at L'Ecole Polytechnique. She was a 23-year-old student at UBC when a man she had met only once broke into her home and almost killed her. The man got off scot-free while Mcdowell, abandoned by the legal system, was locked in a nightmarish abyss. Determined that the lives of these 14 women, and all women who have been murdered by men. would never be forgotten. Mcdowell suggested to the Women's Steering Committee at Capilano College that a monument be built. The project soon expanded into a national project based, for the next seven years, at Capilano College. The world of public art is dominated by men. In North America, less than 20% of public art is designed and created by women. This inequality is also reflected in our nation's public monuments, the vast majority of which are geared to honouring men, or stereotypically male concepts. Through a national competition, a jury consisting of eight women representing Canada's diverse regions, and ethnic and social groups, selected Beth Alber's Marker of Change from over !00 entrants to honour the women murdered in Montreal. Haruko Okano. a jury member, comments "Marker of Change breaks from traditional monuments; it is consciously anti-monument in its physical structure. The design invites the public to go beyond the role of passive observer and ask that they circle, sit, and contemplate the message, and become the living, active component of this monument." Each element of Alber's design is poetic and metaphoric. According to Albert. "The circle, the symbol used by women for centuries to represent a continuum, a non-hierarchical way. is one of the major elements for this women's monument. It is a symbol of women's spirit and is associated with the idea of a protected or consecrated space."