'Kokum won't forget you': Sask. Elder finds hope for MMIWG through Sisters in Spirit walk
Lorna Standingready knows how it feels when a loved one goes missing. Her 14-year-old great-granddaughter disappeared last winter.
“It’s devastating. You’re there and you’re crying (wondering) where is she,” she said.
Eventually she was found safe.
“I was praying from the bottom of my heart,” Standingready said. “Praying that she would be found and she was.”
Standingready is one of dozens who participated in the Regina Police Service’s (RPS) Sisters in Spirit Walk for Healing on Tuesday afternoon.
Sisters in Spirit is a national event held annually on Oct. 4 to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
“Those that are still out there, that’s why I walk,” she said.
“I will walk to let them know kokum won’t forget you.”
RPS organized its first Sisters in Spirit walk last year.
“It’s really important to show families that we are there for them to support them,” said Heather Shepard with the RPS Community and Cultural Diversity Unit.
“We are there from the beginning and we walk with you. Whether it’s from patrol, to major crimes involvement or forensic identification, we have a number of members who are involved in cases with MMIWG.”
Dozens walked from the Mamaweyatitan Centre to the RCMP Heritage Centre for the annual Sisters in Spirit event. (Allison Bamford/CTV News)
Crystal George was another participant. She was the niece of Pamela George, an Indigenous woman who was murdered in Regina in 1995. George was also the stepmother of Keesha Bitternose, the 29-year-old mother of four who was brutally killed in 2020.
As an Indigenous mother and grandmother, George said many suffer from intergenerational trauma.
“A lot of the non-Indigenous community don’t understand the life that we live and how can we make them understand?” she said.
Crystal George walked in honour of her aunt Pamela George and stepdaughter Keesha Bitternose. (Allison Bamford/CTV News)
George said there is distrust between many Indigenous people and the police. However, she said she is grateful for events like the Sisters in Spirit walk that help strengthen Indigenous-police relations.
“We have to create those relationships with RPS and the courts. We still need to decolonize in a lot of aspects in the justice system,” she said.
“We need to really put forward in trusting them and forgiving all the people that have wronged us and hurt us.”
Dozens of participants walked 3.4 km from the Mâmawêyatitân Centre to the RCMP Heritage Centre where they laid roses around the Place of Reflection in memory of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“It’s important to remember that they are not a number. They are people; they are loved; they are missed and we need to honour them and remember them,” said victim services liaison Rhonda Fiddler.
Forty-six names were attached to the roses, which represented the number of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing in Regina in the last 10 years, Fiddler said.
Forty-one were murdered and five are still missing. Although, Fiddler said there could be more names that have been missed.
RPS have plans to continue the annual walk for at least the next two years.
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