Hundreds of people walked from MacEwan University to the University of Alberta on Valentine’s Day to remember and honour missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The event started with an opening prayer and tribute. “We’re going to march carefully, but we are going to march strong because that’s who we are as a nation,” says Dr. Tracey Bear, event organizer.Bear, a professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta says was happy to see so many people come together.
Now in its 10th year, the event raises awareness as friends, family members and community leaders share stories of the women who were taken from them.
“This is a national crisis. One that has been hiding for far too long, and marches like this is for holding this crisis to light,” said Dr. Deborah Saucier, the president of MacEwan University. “These aren’t nameless and faceless women and girls. These are our daughters, our sisters, our nieces and our friends. These are women who might of have been our students, and they are women who were denied their futures.”
According to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be missing or murdered compared to non-Indigenous women.
