Sisters, brothers, strangers and friends braved the wind and cold to march in the Oct. 2 Sisters In Spirit walk in memory of Canada’s 1,181 missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
Around 30 people participated in the procession and about half were walking for the first time. Many of them brought children, who were just beginning to learn about the tragic history that sparked the creation of Sisters in Spirit.
Bearing drums, signs, balloons and flowers, the crowd made its way from the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre through Athabasca’s downtown to reach the riverfront.
Once there, the marchers threw blue carnations into the Athabasca River and released balloons into the air before saying a prayer in remembrance of the past and the hope of a future filled with answers.
Berna Barore’s sister, Ruth Cox, went missing on March 28, 2008. She was last seen leaving the Union Hotel and 11 days later, her body was found on the west side of the riverfront. In that short time, Barore’s brother had also passed away.
RCMP said there were no signs of foul play, but Barore said the investigation left too many unanswered questions.
Barore suspected her sister’s body was dropped off at the riverfront because there were no signs of animal interference, or any alcohol in her system. Search dogs had found nothing on April 6, just one day before Ruth’s body turned up.
Barore also said her family wasn’t the one who identified the body, nor were here sisters personal items returned.
She has since laid a complaint against the RCMP, but she hoped their relationship would improve now that there’s been a change at the head of the Athabasca detachment.
“We’ve invited them every year to walk with us and they always didn’t,” she said. “Now that (Staff Sgt. Brian) Scott is gone, maybe we can get them to walk with us next year.”
This year was also the first time Barore didn’t cry when retelling her sister’s tale.
“Now I can tell the story without tears,” she said. “I think I’m healing.”
Wilma Noskiye and her four-year-old son Kingston attended the walk with her sisters Colleen and Charlene Jackson.
The sisters had a cousin whose daughter was murdered in 2006. Aielah Saric-Auger was 14 when her body was found in the ditch along Highway 16 — the “Highway of Tears” — almost 20 kilometres east of Prince George, B.C. Her murder remains unsolved.
Noskiye said their cousin has since passed away and she and her sisters were there to raise awareness.
“We’re here to keep it going,” she said.
Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Colin Piquette also joined the walk.
He announced that premier Rachel Notley would be pushing for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women, as well as revamping the government’s existing policies and programs to abide by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
