THUNDER BAY - For the past three years, the Ontario Native Woman’s Association has hosted a powwow to honour the memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls who have been taken too soon, and now that the national inquiry has wrapped up and handed down 231 calls to justice, this year it is also serving as a reminder that action is still needed.
“This is really a gathering to become part of that call to action, looking at those recommendations, and how we can take them from high level inquiry recommendations and put them into something that is actionable, that not only ministers or MPs or judges can action, but something the average Canadian citizen in any community can begin to take action, to begin ending violence against Indigenous women and girls, and creating a safer environment in Canadian society,” said ONWA president, Dawn Lavell-Harvard.
The fourth Annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Powwow was held on Sunday at the local office grounds. Hundreds of people gathered to honour those who have been lost with healing songs and dance.
The powwow was first started four years ago to remember the sisters, daughters, grandmothers, nieces, aunts, and mothers who have been the victims of violent crime in the country for decades.
“Those missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls who have been taken far too soon, taken from our lives, from our families, to let them know that they are not forgotten even though they have moved on to the spirit world,” Lavell-Harvard said.
The national inquiry was completed earlier this summer with the release of the report, Reclaiming Power and Place, and included 231 calls to justice.
Lavell-Harvard said it was a long and painful process getting to this point, but she believes that all the advocating and sharing of heartbreak will create change.
“We have come to a place now where we can move forward together and begin that healing that has to happen,” she said.
Coralee McGuire-Cyrette, executive director at ONWA Thunder Bay, said the inquiry was never meant to solve any of the crimes or murders or bring the people back, but to pave a way forward to protect Indigenous women and girls.
“Indigenous women are leading the way and creating an action plan for safety to begin to move beyond actions and the calls to justice,” she said. “We are already beginning this work as an organization. We are already creating our next long-term strategic plan for the next 10 years on how we will do this work and what is needed in communities across Ontario.”
Women also coordinated the powwow and women drummers from Grassy Narrows also performed on the big drum for many of the songs.
But organizations like ONWA cannot do it alone, McGuire-Cyrette said, it will take an entire community effort to create change and make communities safer, and the powwow is one of the ways to start that process.
“It brings our entire community together, whether you are Indigenous or non-Indigenous, so we can be in the same circle and focus on healing together as a community because that is where a change will come,” McGuire-Cyrette said.
McGuire-Cyrette knows the pain so many families across the country have gone through, having lost her cousin, Jamie McGuire, who was murdered in Winnipeg.
“From my families perspective, it’s also about moving beyond her death and toward healing and acknowledging her children, and her grandchildren, and her sisters, and her mother who are still here,” she said. “We as a family continue to focus in our future generations and that we create places of safety for our children.”
“Events like today continue to bring her to the forefront so that she is not forgotten and neither are her children.”
