Tackling the Crisis of MMIWG2S+

From the people searching on the frontlines, to those who hold Canadians to account and the women who know the solutions, we find power and place amidst the national crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2Spirit people.

Winnipeg’s North Point Douglas Women’s Resource Centre is the home of the Mama Bear Clan. The volunteer patrol walks three times a week in this neighbourhood, the poorest in Winnipeg and where many of the city’s most vulnerable have few places to get warm and even fewer places to get food. Walkers like Gina Smoke, Mitch Bourbonnaire and Morgan Fontaine hand out food, winter gear and plenty of love while searching for the missing.

There are roughly 1,200 missing or murdered Indigenous women in Canada, although the true number is thought to exceed 4,000. In 2016, Canada launched a national inquiry into the crisis and heard from three thousand family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers. Its final report — Reclaiming Power and Place — lists 231 calls for justice. Karine Duhamel knows the report well. As the director of research for the National Inquiry which lasted nearly three years, she co-wrote it.

Women like Bernadette Smith and Lorelei Williams have been on the ground in their communities, organizing, marching and educating. But our sisters and relatives keep disappearing. So what is it going to take to finally bring this crisis to an end? Bernadette Smith is the co-founder of the Coalition of Families of Missing and Murdered Women in Manitoba, Drag the Red Initiative and No Stone Unturned, and she is an MLA in the Manitoba legislature. Lorelei Williams is the founder of the Vancouver-based dance group Butterflies in Spirit and member of the Skatin and Sts'ailes First Nations.