Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVORS SOCIETY

MMIWG wellness events focus on healing and togetherness for families

Mar 16, 2023 | 3:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — The red dress has become a symbol for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada. For every missing person, a red dress hangs in place to remember them.

Thursday and Friday (March 16 and 17) at TRU, the Indian Residential Survivors Society (IRSSS) is hosting a free workshop for families who have lost someone.

“We started out in Terrace, then to Prince George, are now in Kamloops. [Then] Osoyoos, Chilliwack and Vancouver,” IRSSS Executive Director Angela White tells CFJC Today. “It’s providing safe spaces for families to come together to begin their healing journey, and understanding their grief, their loss, and no closure for missing loved ones.”

According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, 28 per cent of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases have occurred in B.C. However, for the families of those women and girls who go missing or are victims of violence, it can often feel like they get overlooked.

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“I know in Terrace, so many of the families said often people don’t come past Prince George and they get left out,” Chas Coutlee, IRSSS MMIWG Coordinator explains. “[They’re] really happy to see people there with them, providing space and place of safety for them to gather and be together.”

The goal of these workshops is togetherness. While thousands of Indigenous women across Canada have been murdered and gone missing in the past several decades, those families can often feel alone. These events are meant to bring those families together and unify their voices.

“The inquiry has been done and the recommendations have been brought forward, but there’s been very little movement within the big system,” IRSSS Board Chair Rick Aleck says. “I don’t think we should be waiting for anybody. We become stronger as people if we look after our own issues, and we’ve got resources. As I always say, cultural and traditional ways.”

The IRSSS believes events like these workshops are still necessary, in order to keep the conversation about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls progressing.

“I would love to see, in my lifetime, where we didn’t need to see these types of events,” Coutlee says. “And that our Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited folks are treated with respect, dignity, kindness and safety.”

When it comes down to the crux of the matter, the families just want what anyone who has lost a loved one expects.

“The families just want closure,” White says. “They just want some answers. They want to know where their loved one is, and they want to bring them home. If that’s the one thing that they want, why can’t we do that for them?”