Year-In-Review: Sisters in Spirit Raises Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

As the organizer of the Sisters in Spirit Vigil, which took place on Saturday October 4, 2014 at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Jacqueline Anaquod says that this vigil is “really important as…one of the committee’s main goals is to provide a traditional and ceremonial space for our community members who have been affected by violence and for the families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. A huge issue in our community is identity and when we bring culture and ceremony into a public space, it provides more access for them to come and participate. And for a lot of the committee members, we’ve all been through the cycles of violence and we know what has saved us. For me personally, it was going back to learning about who I was as a Cree woman; going back to the ceremonies, going back to the Elders, and that’s when a healing journey really begins.”

One of Jacqueline’s goals when she first took on this project three years ago was to “bridge Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities together.” She says that “a lot of the violence that we are seeing today has come from a history of colonialism and bad relationships between European and British settlers and the Indigenous people that were on this territory first.” Jacqueline says that when she started planning this event, she approached several different organization, many of them non-Indigenous, and the majority of them were on board right away. Those organizations now include University of Regina, UofR Students’ Union, Amnesty International, Regina Police Service, and Prairie Lily Feminist Group. Jacqueline says that having these organizations involved in instrumental in being able to “build relationships so that our future generations will have a foundation to stand on”.

When asked the question of whether or not racism plays a part in the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Jacqueline says, “we can’t deny that institutional racism and discrimination exist in the justice system. 80 percent of inmates in jail right now are Aboriginal, so where does that stem from?” Still, she says that the Regina Police Service has played a huge part of the planning of this event, attending all committee meetings, and supporting everything that Jaqueline has been wanting to do with the Sisters In Spirit Vigil, an indication to her that the Regina Police Service is “really trying their best to change their relationships with family members.” And she believes that change is happening through educating and growing with one another, and it gives her hope to see our future generations being “a lot more tolerant and understanding…and they are getting rid of those racist, bigoted views that maybe their parents and grandparents had.”

– Story by Lani Elliot / Reporting by Chris Tyrone Ross

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