Inquiry giving women a chance to finally live
RICHMOND, B.C. — Some of those who have told their harrowing stories at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have since redoubled that courage by taking their complaints to police, getting treatment, or reuniting with family, said the head of the inquiry.
Marion Buller said in an interview with The Canadian Press the inquiry’s value is that respect is too great to be calculated.
“We are hearing on an individual basis wonderful healing and personal growth as a result of coming to the national inquiry,” she said Friday.
Nearly 100 people had registered to testify at the final set of public hearings being held in Metro Vancouver this week and as many as 300 statements were expected to be gathered, organizers said.
Buller said it has not been easy for survivors to retread old wounds and share their stories, but they remain committed to making the truth known.
“The way they can get up in the morning and go about their daily lives after what they’ve endured, it’s amazing and it speaks to our grace and our strength and our beauty as Indigenous people that we’re still here and thriving,” she said.
Trudy Smith recounted the physical and sexual abuse she endured at a Vancouver Island residential school while testifying Friday.
Smith said she wanted to speak out not just for herself, but to demand justice for her sister, Pauline Johnson, whose mutilated body was found by police in Port Coquitlam 33 years ago. “There has to be people who are willing to be strong to help us, to solve the cases. I’m not giving up on this.”
Buller said the inquiry has been an opportunity for those testifying to rewrite history that has long been suppressed.
Canadians are led to believe we are kind and generous, but the truth about our history and treatment of Indigenous people suggests otherwise, Buller said.
Indigenous people have endured hundreds of years of systemic discrimination and racist policies, and the affects are still felt today, she said. Remote communities continue to lack resources such as health care and they experience high turnover of professionals.
The lack of support poses safety risks for the people in those communities, Buller said.
“Now Canadians are learning how Indigenous women and girls have to live in their own country and I think that is critical.”