Conclusion

          Indigenous women in Canada and notably British Columbia face numerous hardships in urban areas already, with poverty and trauma being further amplified in rural regions. The Highway of Tears is a concentration of the societal and generational problems that the Indigenous community faces, primarily targeting vulnerable women and girls. The widespread phenomenon of MMIW along Highway 16 still leaves unsolved disappearances and murders today, and the reasons for the lack of support in these communities is in part because of sexual violence and racism. Stigmas and stereotypes attached to Indigenous women further pushes them to the sidelines of society and out of sight of the mainstream. This absence of compassion and charity will only drive communities farther away from each other and will not bridge the poverty gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. This cartographic study of historical prejudices and crime is hopefully a supporting case for improving the lives of Indigenous communities by visualising and pinpointing the factors and variables that in part lead to hardships.  Bringing more awareness to MMIW using maps can lead us to think about how crime is distributed spatially, and how near or far other people are to these murders and disappearances. Uplifting Indigenous women and extending efforts to help improve Canadian communities, big or small, will ultimately lead to a more harmonious country where there will hopefully cease to be a widespread case of targeted murder and violence.