YWCA's Empty Statue Base Addresses the Lack of Monuments Commemorating Women

YWCA Metro Vancouver has today unveiled a statue-less statue base at Canada Place, making a statement about the lack of monuments that commemorate women in Canada. ‘Reserved for Her’ is a statue base made to uplift and celebrate all self-identifying women and comes on International Women’s Day - March 8. 

Throughout history, women's contributions have often been overlooked, forgotten or denied. This discrimination is evident in our public spaces, where women, especially Black, Indigenous and racialized women, are almost never represented in landmarks, sculptures, statues and street art. We estimate that just over 10% of public monuments across Canada recognize women. 

To draw attention to this inequity, we created Reserved for Her championed by Scotiabank, a statue-less statue base, to act as a literal platform for the local girls and women who are working to make history, and to make a statement about the lack of representation of women’s achievements in our public spaces. 

Pictured: Joleen Mitton, Model and Producer 

Joleen is the founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Co-founder of Supernaturals Modeling, AMR Basketball Team and Identifying as Cree was born in East Van but is from Alberta, Joleen also runs her own company, All My Relations Entertainment, her goal is to uplift Urban indigenous communities and emerging Indigenous talent through skills development, employment, and healing - while facilitating Indigenous-Ally relationships via collaboration, education and healthy representation in fashion, art and sport!

“Reserved For Her is about celebrating, elevating and giving credit to the incredible women and girls in our community,” says Amy Juschka, Director of Communications and Advocacy with the YWCA. “But we hope it also highlights that too often, women’s achievements are forgotten or denied. We hope that Reserved For Her inspires girls and women to get on and take their rightful place in history.” 

The installation is also supported by a social campaign run by the YWCA celebrating and telling the stories of local women who are making a difference in their communities. These include Joleen Mitton, the founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week and Nataizya Mukwavi, the Founder of Black Women Connect Vancouver.

The public is encouraged to visit the installation throughout March, step up onto the base and share images to support further awareness and discussion around gender equity. 

The Reserved for Her statue-less statue base was made possible thanks to the championing and support of Scotiabank, the Vancouver Convention Centre and was created by Canadian agency Rethink.

Pictured: Nataizya Mukwavi (Nat-eye-za), Founder of Black Women Connect Vancouver

Nataizya is the Founder of Black Women Connect Vancouver, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2017 serving to bridge gaps present in the local Black community, particularly those affecting Black women. In this community, Black women can build meaningful relationships, express their solidarity with each other, and celebrate the beauty of Black womanhood. 

Reserved for Her Championed by Scotiabank is on display at the Vancouver Convention Centre (see location on Google Maps). Come step on to the statue base and help make history!  

Use the hashtag #ReservedForHer and tag @ywcavan on social media.
 

We recognize that Reserved For Her Championed by Scotiabank is not accessible for all women. Our intention was to include a ramp as part of our statue-less statue base, but we were unable to build an elevated plinth that guaranteed participant safety. We sincerely regret this and we will strive to do better in future campaigns.