Guided Tours of the Downtown Eastside

The Shock & Awe Tour

Tour Starts: Victory Square Cenotaph (Cambie & Hastings)

Dates: Daily from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28

Starts: 2 pm promptly

Tour Duration: 2 - 2.5 hours

Cost: $15 (suggested donation) Accredited media & High School students free

What to bring: An umbrella (it rains in Vancouver), comfortable shoes, warm clothing and an open mind. Cameras are optional but common sense is required.

Your Tour Guides: The Street Sisters – aboriginal women who have lived on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the midst of poverty, addiction, homelessness and violence for most of their adult lives.

Who Should Take this Tour: Politicians, the media, the general public, teens, families and friends of addicts, and everyone else in Canada.

About the Tour
The Downtown Eastside and its residents have been vilified by many in the media and the general public. Some refer to us as “human garbage that festers in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.” Others suggest that we all “get shipped off to an island” and there are those who want us “all to overdose and die.”

If, as the Manchester Guardian declares, our home “looks more like postwar Berlin than an Olympic wonderland,” it is still our home. Imperfect. Wanting. But home, nonetheless …

This tour promises unrestricted access to our neighbourhood, festering sores and all. We hope that it will humanize the face of poverty, addiction and homelessness and that you will come to understand a little better what it is like to be an aboriginal woman in Canada.

We shall take you into the streets and alleys of the notorious downtown eastside and we will introduce you to its more glorious aspects as well.

We will venture into North America’s second largest Chinatown, check out the heritage homes of Strathcona, and walk through the tourist mecca of Gastown.

Along the way, you shall meet some of the remarkable workers and volunteers in the Downtown Eastside who haven’t given up on us and who inspire us with their compassion and commitment.And you never know, we might bump into family and friends too …

Imagine the possibilities …

For more information or to book a personalized tour call 604-313-0208.

This is a fundraiser for the documentary film Street Sisters: First Person stories of survival & support from the Downtown Eastside