Today is the national day of awareness month for the indigenous women and girls that have gone missing and murdered.
Over the years there has been an immense struggle to get those in authority to help solve the cases. Families pleaded to get people in movement to start searching. There was barely any interest to help the indigenous people, they were constantly being ignored by the government.
Imagine your wife, your mom, your sister, your child, your aunt, your cousin or your friend, someone so close to you all of a sudden ends up missing. You head to the police station, the people that have sworn to protect all people, they give you barely a minute to explain what happened and then they say they are too busy to deal with you. You start crying because you know something bad happen and you will do anything to help find them, so you plead, you beg, please help! To comfort you so that you can go away, the officer tells you to give them some time as they have to follow protocol. The person has to be missing for so much time and if they still don't show up go back and see them.
You follow those directions, you have no choice. You end up going back because the person you love is still missing. A bunch of officers don't even stop to hear what you have to say so you scream at the top of your voice. Everyone stops and looks at you like you are crazy.
Finally a cop stops everything to help you, rolling his eyes, he brings you to his desk, sits down and doesn't even grab a pen and paper to write down the details. He tells you the protocols to follow, the same as the last officer and even though you fight with him saying that you already did, he still tries to shove it down your throat. You put your foot down and you aggressively tell the officer to act appropriately because it is his job and that you are no different than any other person. So he sits back and hears your story. He then blankly tells you that he will open a file and start asking around, telling you not to worry, your cherished one is probably just drunk and ended up in someones closet.
Time has gone by, no call, no reminders that they are doing their job, no reassurance. You call the police station tired of being ridiculed when you go, hoping the call wont be the same. They hang up. You call again. They hang up. You call another time. They finally transfer you to another officer, a 3rd one having to explain it all over again, reliving the emotions all over again when you first went. The officer tells you there have been no cases open for missing persons in the last 5 years. This means that all of those who disappeared have gone unnoticed by the system, the very system that is build to keep us safe.
You hang up and you are in tears, there is no hope for any help.
Months have gone by and everyday you live in grievance, never knowing what has happened, praying to one day find out. Nothing more has made you feel so alone in the world.
The day has come, you receive a call. A woman is on the line claiming to be from the police station. Your heart is racing, you can barely hear her talking for the hard drumming of your heart is in your ears, you feel the wash of blood fall from your face and you feel dizzy, faint and all the emotions happen at once as you are told that your loved one has been found in a river, a ditch, somewhere that just doesn't make sense to you.
And no one wanted to help you....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_and_murdered_Indigenous_women
A broken system that we will live in but one that we believe in.
Now imagine being the person that has gone missing. The fear that just goes through your mind! I am not going to write a scenario like this, it is too grim, too much of a dark place to go. But I know you can all imagine rape, being beaten then murdered...
So today, May 5th, we honor those women and children that have gone through this. We wear red to honor them, we pray for them and hold them in ceremony.
Today I wore my red ribbon skirt, I put on my medicine pouch around my neck carrying the 4 sacred medicines.
My children wore their ribbon skirts my one daughter only having a red shirt and my other only have red on her skirt. My son with red on his shirt as well. Made me realize that I don't have much of the red color for them to wear lol. We did with what we had.
We smudged ourselves with sage, we rid ourselves of bad energy and ask for what we need using the smudge prayer.
We then held tobacco in our hands close to your hearts, holding those women and children that have gone in our hearts and we prayed for them.
My son created what he calls earth art using only elements from the earth and used that as a place to pray and lay the tobacco.
May all those have have gone through that kind of violence rest in peace and that their spirits be free.
