Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls MMIWG NATIONAL DAY OF AWARENESS IN SOLIDARITY – May 5, 2022

Honoring Blood Tribe Members Ceremony was held at the Red Crow Park on May 5, 2022, it was hosted by Kainai Wellness Centre and Blood Tribe Department of Health. The gathering was for the community to come and stand together to honour the lives of mothers, daughters, fathers, brothers, friends, and family members that were lost to violence and the unknown. Families put up memorial vigils for their loved ones throughout the park, red dresses were put up in the trees and around the arbor, red was worn by families along with red dresses to commemorate and to remember the lives of those that were lost. Here are a few voices of those who put up vigils at Red Crow Park.

“This means a lot, for my family that have gone on before me, they are not her to see me do this for my late sister Theresa Long Time Squirrel. I hope it keeps going on for the next generation to remember those we’ve lost.” Bonita Long Time Squirrel

“This memorial is to show support to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People, so that people will know they are not forgotten….we still live with them in our hearts every day.” Yvonne Gros Venture Boy

“There’s been a lot of neglect in not looking into these cases properly by our policing departments throughout the provinces… we have to step up to bring light on what’s really going on. It’s a continuous thing every year, girls are being murdered, left and right and young men are starting to get murdered now, because there are people out there that feed of them and we need to stop that, for our future generations.” Don Bottle

“There’s a God, that sees everything, he knows what happened to all of them. Wellness helped me to cope with my sister Trixie – Corrine Chief Moon’s death. I pushed it to the back burner, I put up a wall, when I accessed the group, I was able to talk about her, and to really pray hard that I could accept that she’s gone… now I accept she’s gone, to be with our Lord, that’s what helps.” Peggy Big Throat

The Final Report into the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was publicized in 2019, which included 231 Calls for Justice which are steps that need to be taken by the Canadian government in order to end the genocide against Indigenous women and girls. It also calls on ALL Canadians to be a part of the change. Indigenous women and girls are five times more likely to experience violence than any other population in Canada. For more information go online and look up MMIW or the National Inquiry to Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.