More boats in the water, more chances of finding something: Nepinak on Drag the Red River

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This article was published 17/09/2014 (4357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ursula Mason knows the pain of having a missing family member and the deep-rooted sadness of always wondering.

It’s what brought the former St. Theresa’s Point resident to the Alexander Docks on Wednesday afternoon to join the efforts in dragging the Red River.

“My brother went missing 12 years ago, he’s still missing, somewhere in the up-north lakes. It has a sentimental feeling for me and why I’m here,” Mason said. Her brother was driving a snowmobile that fell through the ice. “They never found him and it’s been 12 years.”

She was casting and reeling-in a large metal hook attached to a thick rope, but only had a pile of garbage to show for it early on.

“I haven’t got much yet but I have to try. It’s something. A lot of families don’t have closure. They’re still wondering,” Mason said.

The hope is that evidence or even remains of any of Manitoba’s missing aboriginal women will be found.

It is a community-driven, volunteer search led by family and friends of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

The idea for the search, called Drag the Red River, came after the discovery of the body of missing aboriginal teen Tina Fontaine last month.

Leading the initiative are Kyle Kematch, whose sister Amber Guiboche has been missing since 2010, and Berndadette Smith, whose sister Claudette Osborne has been missing since 2008.

“We’re going to continue as long as the weather lets us,” Smith said. “They have a fire here burning which is great, people are coming out for support. Our community is coming together, which is great, doing whatever they can to help.”

There were two boats on the river in the afternoon pulling metal dragging bars attached to thick ropes. A half-dozen volunteers patrolled the dock and river bank areas casting in long four-prong hooks being made on site by a volunteer from Quebec working out of the trunk of his car. He made heavy-duty dragging hooks — each created from two pieces of rebar bent into “U” shapes and bound together with wire. Volunteers tossed them into the deep, murky water and pulled them along the mucky bottom hoping to snag on something.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, who went out in a boat launched by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said the challenges are many for the volunteers.

“It’s dirty, it’s a fast current and we don’t have nearly enough boats in the water, we can only cover a small area. So unless more boats get out here, we’re going to have a difficult time,” said Nepinak, whose cousin Tanya Nepinak, missing since 2011, is among hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women dating back to the 1960s.

“The more boats we have in the water, the more chances we have of finding something… this is a reflection of people and organizations coming together and helping one another.”

Also joining forces Wednesday with the searchers were MKO Grand Chief David Harper and members of some of the 30 northern communities represented by MKO.

Harper said MKO will be contributing portable washrooms and some food for volunteers as well as a sonar system used in northern search-and-rescue and four volunteer northern search-and-rescue divers who will physically comb areas currently being pinpointed with the assistance of elders.

ashley.prest@fresspress.mb.ca