No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial is a documentary filmed in Kelowna exploring grief and homelessness.
Co-producers and directors Joshua Black and Stephanie Laing spoke with People First Radio.
Its title refers to a memorial designed by unhoused community members in Kelowna. A shopping cart was painted white and people added tags and other mementos during a ceremony to commemorate people who had died while homeless.
Laing, who is the director of research operations for the Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre, says the memorial started to grow organically following the ceremony.
“Folks would leave trinkets and mementos of their own, people would leave flowers or offerings, so it really became this beautiful site where folks could take a moment to grieve at utilizing the cart.”
Black is Bereavement Initiative Manager at the B.C. Centre for Palliative Care. He says it’s important that people experiencing homelessness have the opportunity to grieve losses and be recognized as grievers when they occur. He says, doing the research involved in creating the documentary revealed the importance of having safe spaces.
“ I think many of us have told stories to other people that have just not been heard. They,been discounted in some way, and that’s very harmful to our grief and our vulnerability,” he said.
“We had so many people wanting to share and to tell their story and word got out to the communities that it was a safe space to share. And it was very beautiful to sort of see some of that come out and to see some of the, I would say the. The change in people having just a safe space to share…we can take that for granted, a lot of times.”
At one point the cart was stolen, and another memorial for a community member was dismantled by bylaw – which Laing says is symbolic of the disenfranchised grief people experiencing homelessness are dealing with.
“Their loss is not necessarily treated equally or it’s not recognized because some of the memorials are maybe seen as not needing to stay where they are, or maybe aren’t given the highest honor of importance the way that they could be.”
Laing says there’s something everyone can do to help support those grieving.
“Whether that is creating a memorial piece, creating an art piece, supporting programs further that provides services, engaging in volunteerism, through palliative care or hospice societies.”
There will be a free screening of the documentary in Nanaimo on October 22, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
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