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Two weeks ago, a group called Urban Warrior Alliance set up camp on the Manitoba legislature grounds to protest government inaction on issues surrounding Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. On Wednesday, the federal government unveiled details for a national inquiry that will examine the high rate of violence against indigenous women and girls in Canada, beginning Sept. 1.
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Two weeks ago, a group called Urban Warrior Alliance set up camp on the Manitoba legislature grounds to protest government inaction on issues surrounding Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. On Wednesday, the federal government unveiled details for a national inquiry that will examine the high rate of violence against indigenous women and girls in Canada, beginning Sept. 1.
Two weeks ago, a group called Urban Warrior Alliance set up camp on the Manitoba legislature grounds to protest government inaction on issues surrounding Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women. On Wednesday, the federal government unveiled details for a national inquiry that will examine the high rate of violence against indigenous women and girls in Canada, beginning Sept. 1.
Click or hover over each photo to see their stories.
ZACHARY PRONG / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Wapi (Last Name not given) "I'm here with my dad. They're here about murdered and missing women. We have to help save the women. It's sad and it makes me cry." June 31, 2016.Frank Longhawke, Urban Warrior Alliance: "I'm just here to support the women, the children, the campers. They've adopted me as their family; it's important that we help them out. I've heard and seen people in the news, who were murdered, so when the families asked for help I came down. I've been here since Day 1."Stanley Joseph Cote, Urban Warrior Alliance: "We're fathers, we're sons, we're nephews, and all those people who are missing, that's a part of us, too. That's why we're here. Every single one of us. Because we're all worried about the next generation. I have children, and that's why I'm worried. Why I want to make a difference out here? I don't want my babies to be missing or murdered. And I want to try and do something that's going to make a change. I don't want people to think we're just here because we want to be a part of something. I'm a father and worry about my kids future."Calvin Clarke, Urban Warrior Alliance: "It makes me angry that government is treating these families like this, that have suffered so much loss. It's a slap in our face to our people. Too bad it has to come to these things [the sit-in] to draw attention to it. A lot of us have said enough, we're standing up. I just want my daughter to grow up in peace, to be treated like a regular citizen of this country like everyone else is treated. I don't want her to grow up feeling shame that she's native. I don't want her to be scared to walk to the store at night. To have the fear of getting attacked and raped and killed. I want her to grow up peacefully. That's why we're having this fight right now, so our kids won't have to."Sandy Banman, Urban Warrior Alliance, mother of Carl, who went missing and found dead five years ago: "You can just say I had a complete mental nervous breakdown. They found him in a creek. They searched for miles but they couldn't find him. They said, ‘OK, we're done here,' but there was one fireman who said 'let's just go that extra mile so we can bring closure to this family.' Just one more mile. And then they found him. And that's what I'm asking everyone else to do. Just go one more mile. You think you would understand as a mother what (parents of missing children) are going through, right? You think you would know. But when it happens to you there is absolutely nothing that can prepare you for the kind of pain. It just hits you...I hurt in places I didn't even know were places — in my body, in my mind and in my heart."Sue Caribou, Aunt of Tanya Nepinak, murdered in 2011: "I'm here for my niece, Tanya Nepinak, and Nancy Dumas, my caregiver who went missing in 1972. I got seven family who were murdered. Nobody charged. My parents got murdered while I was in residential school. So I've been going through this all my life. I'm 51. Can't you give us answers? Can you not give up on our people? When you don't have closure, it gets harder every year. This has brought a lot of addictions to a lot of our people, because their voices are not being heard. And me I'm not going to give up, I'm not gonna turn to addiction and give up on my loved ones."Lita Blacksmith, mother of Lorna Blacksmith, murdered in 2012: "My daughter was outgoing. She lived to the fullest. She was always on the go. She always had all these plans for us — what to do, where to go. I loved every plan that she made. She was very funny; she made me laugh. Sometimes, I felt she was looking after me instead of me looking after her. It was funny how we were with each other… She had issues and she was dealing with it in her own way. I respected her needs and her privacy. I didn't want to get into too much with her, I didn't want to make her run off. I wanted to keep close to her. That's why I never dealt with what she was going through with her emotions. So it's very hard."Jennifer Spence-Clarke, Urban Warrior Alliance: "I'm an Anishinaabe Kwe and I come from Manitoba. I also have Metis ancestry on my father's side. I grew up in the inner city, varying between North End, West End, downtown, central areas. There was a lot of indigenous people, however I didn't grow up in my culture. I grew up in the church. I knew I was indigenous in some way, but back then that was something you didn't want to admit to people. It's a lot different now. We're proud to call ourselves indigenous… Now my baby will grow up in this culture. She'll grow up around the ceremonies, around sun dance, and she'll go to powwows. She'll walk with us as we show her what the culture is."
