THUNDER BAY – The 17th annual Full Moon Memory Walk was held on Saturday at Thunder Bay’s city hall, honouring murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.
“It's a good feeling to see people come out and come together to, you know, to support the walk, to support the families that are going through the same thing my family went through,” she said. “Some of my family are kind of surprised that I'm that I decided to organize another walk this year.”
Organizer, Sharon Johnston, whose sister Sandra K. Johnson’s body was found in 1992 on a frozen Thunder Bay river, had stepped back from organizing the walks a few years ago to take care of herself but says that speaking to another family member who had been affected by the loss of a loved one was what inspired her to come back and organize another walk.
“It wasn't until after talking to her when I felt I needed to do something and I kind of wanted to do it for her and for her family to come and to come and walk with us,” she said.
“But unfortunately, she can't make it here to walk with us from here because she had some car troubles this morning. But it's for people like her and for other families that are in town that I know have been affected by the loss of a loved one or that is missing a loved one.”
According to a 1,200-page 2019 report, produced after interviewing more than 2,000 people across the country, Indigenous women and girls are murdered or go missing at a rate 12 times more than women and girls from any other demographic and are 16 times more likely to be killed than Caucasian women.
“There, there's so much, there's so much that happens, so much violence, and sometimes, it's sad to say, but it continues to happen,” said Johnson. “The violence continues to happen to indigenous women, to Anishinaabe women all over and it's just important that we continue to do stuff like this.”
Johnson says that the walk wouldn’t have started without Elder Lynne Sharman who approached her at the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Center 17 years ago.
“If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have gotten involved with this work,” she said “We wanted to do something more to raise awareness about violence against indigenous women in Thunder Bay area.”
The walk is held annually in September to honour Johnson’s sister who was born in September of 1973, and it’s specifically held during the full moon as that is when Anishinaabe women traditionally practiced ceremonies.
“Originally when we met, there was a group of us at the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, and we talked the memorial walk and how we wanted to do it, you know, there was all kinds of different ideas,” said Johnson.
“And the full moon came up because the full moon is a powerful time for Anishinaabe women, that’s when we do our ceremonies, and that’s the main reason why.”
