Traditional fire burns as families share stories at MMIWG hearing
Commissioner honours missing, survivors as inquiry begins in city
Chief commissioner Marion Buller began the Saskatoon stop of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by acknowledging the spirits of the women and girls who will be remembered this week by their loved ones, and the spirits of those who have not been lost.
“We can’t forget about the survivors of violence. We have to acknowledge them as well — their strength, their courage, as well as the special challenges that are faced daily by members of the LGBTQ2S communities,” Buller said.
Vice-chief Heather Bear of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations also acknowledged the hope of the people.
“This is about the future. This is about putting an end to violence ... putting an end to women who are being murdered, our Indigenous women and men and boys,” she said.
Bear noted that while there has been controversy around the inquiry, the commission was assigned a huge task, without instructions, under a complex law and are serving people in pain. Things are ready to go now, she said.
“We are going to do the work. You are going to be heard.”
Powwow dancers in brilliant regalia led dignitaries into the room at a downtown hotel to the sound of the Dancing Horse Drummers.
Families have been waiting a long time to tell their stories and for people to understand the complexities of violence against Indigenous women and the consequences within Indigenous communities, said Senator Lillian Dyck, who has been working on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls since she joined the Canadian senate 12 years ago.
She recalled the tears of relief that flowed in Ottawa two years ago when now-Senator Murray Sinclair declared the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Indian Residential Schools’ support for an inquiry.
“For so many years, Canada did not believe we had a problem. The rest of the world did, but now Canada’s acknowledged it,” Dyck said.
In a teepee down the block from the hotel, traditional ceremony helpers are keeping a fire that is meant to burn uninterrupted until the hearings close on Thursday.
Alvin Baptiste and Ralph Arcand were there on Monday morning, feeding the fire and greeting visitors who stopped in. Baptiste offered a container of tobacco for visitors to add to the fire in prayer.
“In all our ceremonies, fire comes first over there — feasts, wakes, all our ceremonies,” Baptiste said.
Keeping the vigil at the fire is a sacrifice for him.
Baptiste’s nephew, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot in a farmyard near Biggar last year.
If he weren’t in Saskatoon this week, Baptiste would be in Battleford, supporting Colten’s mother, Debbie Baptiste. She attended Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday to observe pre-trial motions in advance of next year’s scheduled trial of Gerald Stanley, who is charged with murder in connection with Boushie’s death.
Baptiste said he is doing the firekeeping job because he was formally asked in a ceremony to do it. He decided to come to support families from across the province who have experienced the death of their loved ones, as his family has, he said. “Throughout Saskatchewan we’re slowly coming together and becoming like, it’s almost like we’re all family,” he said.