Honoured to share story of Indigenous teen stolen from us

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/05/2023 (877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I love telling stories.

Stories have the power to connect us and change the way we see the world and other people. There is power and responsibility in storytelling. And as someone who does it for a living, it can also be a super-scary thing to do, especially when you are telling stories that don’t belong to you.

But it’s the greatest privilege.

I never fully understood how personally one could take their work until I started doing this. These stories — and the people behind them — really get into your head and heart. They move you to feel a range of emotions so deeply that it changes you. I’ve been extremely lucky to have shared several stories like that.

On Saturday’s front page, I wrote about Fonassa Bruyere, a 17-year-old girl from Winnipeg who was slain in 2007. Her case remains unsolved to this day.

On Red Dress Day May 5, I connected with Fonassa’s cousin, Crystal McLean, on Facebook and she agreed to meet me to talk about her cousin. After we spoke, I reached out to her mother, Janet Bruyere (Fonassa’s grandmother) to see if she would be willing to share her own story that will hopefully be part of a larger series of stories about our lost and stolen sisters.

When she agreed, I drove out to her home on Sagkeeng First Nation to interview her. It’s about an 80-minute drive each way, down Highway 59, past my home community of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation. The stretch of road is lined on each side with forests of blooming trees, and the skeletons of long, skinny trunks that shoot up into the openness of the Prairie sky.

On my way there, just after I turned right onto Highway 11, I saw two eagles circling in the air. A sign, I thought. My heart was pounding. I always get anxious before an interview, especially one like this.

Fonassa was only 17 when she was reported missing in the summer of 2007. Her family said when they tried to report her missing, they weren’t taken seriously by police. They banded together and searched for the girl for nearly a month before two detectives came to the family’s door, asking them to identify a watch that was found on the body of a young girl whose remains had been dumped in a field on the outskirts of Winnipeg.

It was Fonassa.

In all these years, there have been no suspects or arrests — no justice for Fonassa or her family.

“It is still an open investigation,” is all Winnipeg police said last week when the Free Press inquired about Fonassa’s case.

But as far as Janet and Crystal know, the trail is cold — and they expect it will stay that way.

While she was missing, and in the aftermath of her death, the stories that came out about Fonassa often didn’t go far enough in telling her story beyond her circumstances. In several instances, the narrative was sterile, dehumanizing and often lacked empathy. Fonassa and her circumstances were described in words that were degrading; not fit to describe a vulnerable and exploited person, let alone a child.

She was a human being. She was loved. She is missed.

Fonassa deserved more. Fonassa’s family deserves more.

Speaking with Crystal and Janet was profoundly moving. I only hope the words I shared based on their memories and sorrow are meaningful and tell the story of a little girl — because by all accounts that’s what she was — who was loved and filled with hopes and dreams for a life that was stolen.

It is the greatest honour to be able to bear witness to Fonassa’s story.

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter @ShelleyACook