Who We Are and What We Do - P4W Memorial Collective

Who We Are & What We Do

The P4W Memorial Collective is a group of former prisoners who are creating a memorial garden to honour those who died at P4W and those who continue to live and die in prisons, jails, and detention centers across the country. In addition to our annual healing circles, the P4W Memorial Collective has organized film screenings, solidarity letters, roundtable discussions, and other gatherings.

We are struggling to have a Memorial Garden planted in front of P4W, with benches and a stone walkway encircling a monument where all the names of women who have died in prisons across Canada can be remembered and honored. There will be plants and trees that are native to this region, but also plants that are particularly meaningful to Indigenous people across Canada. Once this is completed, anyone is invited to sit in the Garden on a bench to remember the women and events that took place on this site. This history and memories can never be erased. However, by creating a Gallery where the women’s art, writing and films can be seen, we will erase this stigma so we can see them for who they really are – mothers, daughters, friends, writers, artists, speakers from all walks and classes of society. Through the Art of Survival prisoner art exhibition and the Memorial Garden, we can remember and honor the women for who we really are, and where the living can heal from the trauma of their criminalization.

Please consider a donation towards this project.

Every dollar will be put to good use.

Vision

We envision a world that does not require punitive systems of surveillance and social control to address harm but is instead building real safety and belonging through community-building efforts aimed at equity, diversity, and inclusion where everyone has access to the necessities of life and meaningful opportunities in society.

Values

The P4W Memorial Collective is grounded in the values of liberty, collaboration, respect for diversity, solidarity, harm reduction, social justice, equity, and community-building. One of the central ways that the Collective demonstrates these values is through the honouring, remembering, centering, and uplifting the stories and experiences of those who have lived and died in Canadian prisons. Moreover, the Collective aims to raise public consciousness about injustices in the prison system, both past and present, including but not limited to ongoing effects of settler colonialism, racism, patriarchy and sexism, and classism. Given the colonial context of Canada, special attention is paid to the cultures and traditions of Indigenous peoples on whose lands the prisons occupy.

Mission

By promoting social inclusion, eliminating marginalization, and strengthening communities to reduce the likelihood of legal interventions, the Collective’s advocacy and activist efforts are broadly aimed at improving the lives of those experiencing criminalization.

Moreover, through media outreach, public education, workshops, and publications developed collaboratively with people with lived experience, the Collective raises awareness about systemic issues that lead to criminalization and the harmful conditions of prison and the (in)justice system. One of the important ways in which the Collective sets out to achieve these goals is through the development of a P4W Memorial Garden and Gallery.

In this space, historical and contemporary stories of prisoners will be shared, and the community can gather for a variety of purposes, such as to heal, remember, and/or learn about prisoners and the prison system across Canada. Another way that the Collective aims to achieve its goals is through the organization of Prisoners’ Justice Day in Kingston every August 10^th.

This event is vital to the memorialization and honouring of the lives and deaths of people in prison across Canada.