Jason Kerr
Daily Herald
Acknowledgement is great, but the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls isn’t going to go away without change.
That was the message from local elder Liz Settee as groups across Prince Albert prepare for Red Dress Day on May 5. The annual event was first held in 2010 in memory of Indigenous women and girls across Canada who have gone missing or been murdered.
Settee said it’s good to see the issue acknowledged in public, but the change needed to reduce the number of missing and murdered has been slow.
“It’s sadness,” Settee said during an interview. “We have so many missing and murdered. We still have missing women. We’re still finding women in landfills. That just really tears at my heart.”
Searching landfills has been a point of contention this past year. In March, police in Winnipeg identified a second set of remains found in a local landfill. The remains belonged to Marcedes Myran, one of four Indigenous women murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki in 2022. Myran’s remains were the second set found in the landfill.
The landfill search is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year, the CBC reported.
“We’ve lost humanity and to treat another person like that just really saddens my heart,” Settee said. “In Indigenous culture, women were held in high regard because we’re the givers of life and we were respected and honoured.”
Settee said the current situation is infuriating. There is hope, she said, but reducing the number of missing and murdered women will require changes to the justice system.
In particular, Settee said she wants to see stiffer penalties for domestic abusers. She said the justice system takes too long to work through cases. The endless delays and adjournments, she said, are traumatizing victims and making it harder to come forward.
Ideally, she’d like to see provincial and federal justice ministers sit down with Indigenous elders to discuss the problem.
“Something is backwards in the justice system,” she said. “Bring in a different perspective. Obviously the one that they’re using is not working.
“Our system is not working,” she added. “We see that day after day after day, and I think looking at things from a different lens might help.”
Despite the frustrations, Settee said there have been improvements. Twenty years ago, few people were talking about missing and murdered Indigenous women, she said. Now, it’s a national issue.
However, Settee said that’s not enough.
“I think things are being acknowledged, but I don’t really think that much has changed,” she said. “We didn’t hear about missing and murdered Indigenous women 20 years ago, but I think the perception out there sees us one way, and that’s that stereotype.”
Red Dress Day is on May 5.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
