Skip to content

‘I’m sick and tired of my sisters being taken and murdered’

Walk to boost awareness of missing Indigenous women passes through Tisdale
Prayer Walkers
Muriel Waukey, Niibin, E Naad Maa Get and Jacqueline Hines are planning to walk more than 17,000 kilometres to bring attention to the number of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls across the country. They started from Ontario's Bruce Peninsula and passed through Tisdale Aug. 14. Photo by Jessica R. Durling.

TISDALE — A small group of Anishinaabek youth passed through Tisdale with one goal: to raise attention to the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.

Da-namaamin moseyang giw-ganchigaazjig kwewag, which translates to ‘we will walk in prayer for those murdered women’, started walking from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and intend to walk a little over 17,000 kilometres. They started on Dec. 21, 2017.

In 2014, a report by the Commissioner of the RCMP found that murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls far exceeded previous estimates by the RCMP. The review found police-recorded incidents of homicides and unresolved missing persons was a total of 1,181 – 164 missing and 1,017 homicide victims.

This showed that Indigenous women and girls are over-represented among Canada’s murdered and missing women.

In 2015, the federal government launched an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, after calls to action from Indigenous communities and their allies.

“It’s important to me personally because most of my family is female and the thought of one of them going missing at any point in time, either to disappear or be found murdered, is not something that I would like to wish upon my family,” said Prayerful Walkers organizer, E Naad Maa Get.

One of the other walkers, Niibin, walked due to losing her own friend.

“I lost my friend about five years ago, Bella Laboucan-McLean, and it was the first thing that really struck for me,” Niibin said. “Because when I was in high school I did a paper on missing and murdered Indigenous women, it was about 500, now it’s more than that. I’m sick and tired of my sisters being taken and murdered.”

The trip hasn’t been easy, with their walk through Thunder Bay having racial slurs yelled at them and refuse thrown from cars.

“The goal of the walk is to raise awareness in the outside communities which may not be aware of what we’re facing, but also additional family members that have been affected, that we’re in solidarity with them,” E Naad Maa Get said. “And also to show other First Nations communities that we can address the issues that we face in our own ways, instead of waiting for outside help or responses outside of the Canadian government, or provincial governments at that.”

E Naad Maa Get would like to see police institutions be more culturally sensitive.

“One of the affected family members we walked with, she shared with us that she didn’t know that her daughter was missing until it was on the news, so there was no effort made to contact these individuals,” E Naad Maa Get said. “Or reporting times to be in a timely manner instead of weeks, months down the road. In some cases it’s even years later. To help the process of making a report be taken seriously, instead of being replied with stereotypes like, ‘oh, that person is probably out drinking.’”

He said that any affected family member is welcome to walk with them, speak with them or share their story using the Twitter hashtag #prayerwalk or their direct Facebook page.