Seven pseudonyms

In order to reach beyond restrictive and often de-humanizing media representations of the Downtown Eastside, Leslie Robertson and Dara Culhane have collected the stories of seven women for In Plain Sight: Reflections On Life In Downtown Eastside Vancouver (Talonbooks 18.95).

To respect privacy and preserve the women's safety, the two academic editors have ironically opted to present their Plain Sight informants as surnameless and faceless. The seven narrators chose their own pseudonyms.

Here they speak for themselves:

Raised in a white, middle-class family on the west side of Vancouver, Tamara first began using and dealing drugs recreationally. Slowly her life became consumed by heavy drug use. "I always had a thousand bucks cash on me. I remember being stopped by these cops for a seat belt. It was some stupid ticket just to harass me. They knew I had money, and they knew I was probably dealing. I couldn't see that then, I thought it was just harassment. But I remember this cop wanting to count my money. The cops that brought me in made this other cop count everything, every last penny at the bottom of my purse. I had 999 dollars and ninety-four cents. They attached a little note. 'We couldn't see you leaving with such an odd amount. We put a collection together, put six cents in.' (Laughing) I walked out with a thousand.";

Pawz, a victim of domestic abuse who, in an attempt to escape from her husband, took refuge in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. "I had a child who passed away. I was almost murdered. I was raped. I've had all these bad things happen; yet I don't want to say I'm unhappy to be alive.";

A Salish First Nations, Dee grew up on a reserve, but was forced to move to Vancouver when her mother lost her job. A drug user and sex worker, she has experienced the dangers of being an Aboriginal woman in the sex trade. "It's really hard to get out of the unclean feeling of having to be a prostitute. I still have my regulars, but when I go out there and look at the street, it's nothing to hold your head up high about. It's a dirty rotten occupation. I've never liked it.";

Sara grew up in a physically, sexually and mentally abusive home. After working the streets in Alberta, she moved to Vancouver to avoid a domineering pimp. "For once, I get to say my piece. I've done a lot of interviews on this and that around my life, around things from downtown like the missing women. A lot of stuff that I said was taken out of context or wasn't portrayed properly, and in the end it looked like non-truths. So this is finally my chance to say something and for it to be accurate.";

Born in Edmonton, Black Widow started "doing lines"; when she was thirteen. After spending some time in jail, she followed her ex-husband to Vancouver where he had taken her kids. "I've led my life the way I've led my lifeI don't know if I've made all the right decisions, but I really don't think I'm a bad person. I don't steal; I don't lie. I'm not a selfish person. I'm not a self-centred person. Maybe when I'm gone, maybe somebody can read something about me.";

A Cree native of Regina, Laurie was raised by foster parents in Saskatoon. She moved to Vancouver in her 20s where she began to participate in heavy drug use and trafficking. "Drug addicts have an image, too. Yeah, we have an image. Even down here we've got low-class, middle-class, and high-class; you have the dope and you're up there. But what we don't have is people rallying around usIt's like when Gordon Campbell said, 'I'm just a social drinker.' If I ever get busted again I'm going to say, 'I'm just a social addict.'";

Also Laurie: "They tried for a long, long time to get girls to move even farther down by the bridge, to almost underneath the railroad tracks. It's not well lit and there's nothing around there, so if you scream nobody's going to hear you. It's deserted and the girls wouldn't go. Police were literally following you in their car at, like, two miles an hour, until you walked all the way down there. They wanted us to work underneath where it's industrial, where it's deserted and dark, and where nobody's around to say squat.";

Soon after receiving her degree in therapy, Anne suffered a series of mental health breakdowns. She now lives with her child on the Downtown Eastside where she struggles with poverty and the stigma of mental illness. "We might be recovering addicts, we might be recovering alcoholics, we might be recovering from a number of different things. That doesn't take away anything from out ability to be great mothers."; That's what I want people to know. I want people to know that we're intelligent, thoughtful and insightful people who care for our children.";

ISBN 0-88922-513-3