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L-G-0014502457-0046728341.Pdf Keetsahnak / Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters KIM ANDERSON, MARIA CAMPBELL & CHRISTI BELCOURT, Editors Keetsahnak Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters 1 The University of Alberta Press Published by First edition, first printing, 2018. First electronic edition, 2018. The University of Alberta Press Copyediting and proofreading by Ring House 2 Joanne Muzak. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada t6g 2e1 Indexing by Judy Dunlop. www.uap.ualberta.ca Book design by Alan Brownoff. Copyright © 2018 The University of Cover image: Sherry Farrell Racette, She Alberta Press Grew Her Garden on Rough Ground, 2016, beadwork on moosehide. Used by permission library and archives canada cataloguing in publication All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored Keetsahnak / Our missing and in a retrieval system, or transmitted in murdered Indigenous sisters / any form or by any means (electronic, Kim Anderson, Maria Campbell & mechanical, photocopying, recording, Christi Belcourt, editors. or otherwise) without prior written consent. Contact the University of Alberta Includes bibliographical references Press for further details. and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. The University of Alberta Press supports isbn 978–1–77212–367–8 (softcover).— copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, isbn 978–1–77212–391–3 (epub).— encourages diverse voices, promotes free isbn 978–1–77212–392–0 (Kindle).— speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank isbn 978–1–77212–390–6 (pdf) you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with the copyright 1. Native women—Crimes against— laws by not reproducing, scanning, or Canada. 2. Native women—Crimes distributing any part of it in any form against—Canada—Prevention. 3. Native without permission. You are supporting women—Violence against—Canada. writers and allowing the University of 4. Native women—Violence against— Alberta Press to continue to publish books Canada—Prevention. 5. Missing for every reader. persons—Canada. 6. Murder victims— Canada. 7. Native women—Canada— The University of Alberta Press gratefully Social conditions. I. Campbell, Maria, editor acknowledges the support received for its II. Anderson, Kim, 1964–, editor publishing program from the Government III. Belcourt, Christi, 1966–, editor of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, IV. Title: Our missing and murdered and the Government of Alberta through the Indigenous sisters. Alberta Media Fund. e98.w8k448 2018 305.48’897071 c2018–901685–x 6 7 c2018–901686–8 Dedicated to spirits of our relatives who continue to guide their families from the spirit world. Contents Prologue xi Waking Dreams: Reflections on Walking With Our Sisters christi belcourt Acknowledgements xix Introduction xxi kim anderson I | All Our Relations 1 Voices from the Downtown Eastside 3 debra leo, beatrice starr & stella august downtown eastside power of women group 2 Honouring Women 15 beverly jacobs 3 Sacred Sisters and Sacred Circles 35 A Story of One Nehiyawak Family and the Power of Spirit sandra lamouche 4 Honouring Elsie 45 Was She Just a Dream? ann-marie livingston & sarah hunt II | The Violence of History 5 Generations of Genocide 65 The Historical and Sociological Context of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls robyn bourgeois 6 A Tradition of Violence 89 Dehumanization, Stereotyping, and Indigenous Women michelle good 7 The (Un)Making of Property 103 Gender Violence and the Legal Status of Long Island Algonquian Women kelsey t. leonard 8 (The Missing Chapter) On Being Missing 125 From Indian Problem to Indian Problematic maya ode’amik chacaby III | Challenges 9 Violence and Extraction 147 Stories from the Oil Fields helen knott 10 Skirting the Issues 161 Indigenous Myths, Misses, and Misogyny alex wilson 11 The Moose in the Room 175 Indigenous Men and Violence against Women robert alexander innes & kim anderson 12 Considering Wenonah, Considering Us 193 waaseyaa’sin christine sy 13 Centring Resurgence 215 Taking on Colonial Gender Violence in Indigenous Nation Building leanne betasamosake simpson IV | Action, Always 14 Iskwewuk E-wichiwitochik 243 Saskatchewan Community Activism to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls darlene r. okemaysim-sicotte, susan gingell & rita bouvier 15 Woman Sacred 271 pahan pte san win 16 Leading with Our Hearts 279 Anti-Violence Action and Beadwork Circles as Colonial Resistance laura harjo, jenell navarro & kimberly robertson Epilogue 305 Sitting in with Sisters kim anderson, tracy bear, christi belcourt, maria campbell, maya ode’amik chacaby, tanya kappo, tara kappo, lyla kinoshameg, jo-anne lawless, brenda macdougall, sylvia maracle, ramona reece, madeleine kétéskwew dion stout Contributors 327 Index 339 Prologue xi Waking Dreams: Reflections on Walking With Our Sisters christi belcourt i had a dream shortly before Walking With Our Sisters (wwos) opened for the first time in the fall of 2013 in Edmonton. I was wondering how all those vamps were going to be set up. I knew the red cloth would be covering the floor and people would remove their shoes to walk along side the vamps. But I wasn’t sure exactly how that many pairs would be laid out. I didn’t yet under- stand the extent to which community involvement would be essential. I also didn’t yet understand how this Indigenous-led commemoration was ceremony and not just “art.” By the time Edmonton was set to open, 1,763 pairs of vamps had arrived, 65 beading groups had sprang up, over a dozen people had joined me on the national collective to help organize, and thousands had been inspired to express their care and concern by Walking With Our Sisters is a memorial installation of over two thousand moccasin tops (sometimes called vamps) to honour the lives of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. The travelling memorial runs until 2018. For more information, see www. walkingwithoursisters.ca. This publication emerged as an idea by the wwos national collective under the guidance of Elder Maria Campbell, who wanted to increase the amount of resources available for post-secondary studies. either making vamps, organizing to help, or making donations. It was a whirlwind and outpouring of care and compassion. We were all feeling the same way: like we needed and wanted to do some- thing. We needed to express our support and care for the families. In my dream, the one I had before Edmonton, I was standing in a big long lodge, the kind you see with longhouses or Midewewin lodges. There were women standing all around the edge, shoulder to shoulder. About three rows of us standing like that, looking at each other, wondering what to do. Suddenly a drum appeared in xii the middle, and then some men appeared and started singing. Just then, Elder Maria Campbell, who was standing beside me, walked out and began to dance with her hands faced upwards. I followed Prologue her. Other women followed as well. We all danced, hundreds of us, and then one by one everyone disappeared until I was left alone in the lodge, and I woke up. This dream formed the basis of how the installation of wwos is set up. The vamps are placed in pairs, one beside another, as if women are standing shoulder to shoulder in their moccasins facing the people who have come to pay their respects. I thought, at the beginning, when I first made the call out for vamps, that wwos was an art exhibit. It isn’t. Walking With Our Sisters defies categorization. It’s a commemoration, it’s ceremony, it’s an honouring, it’s art, it’s community taking action, it’s a way to demonstrate we care. It is compassion that guides it. Nothing else. And it has no other purpose except for communities to come together to hold ceremony to honour the lives of missing and disappeared sisters and two-spirit loved ones, and to support family members who attend. wwos is not an organization. It’s never been registered and it will never be. It’s merely a collective of caring souls. We set no expectations or goals and allowed the ceremony to guide what needed to happen. We asked the spaces where wwos goes to turn their space into a community-owned space. Even if it was a gallery, museum, or another type of space that is typically run by a dedicated staff, we asked that wwos be entirely run by community and that the space become transformed into a sacred space where grandmothers, Elders, and traditional knowledge keepers could feel comfortable being there every day to sustain the ceremony. At the beginning, Walking With Our Sisters set out four guiding principles. Everything we do flows from these principles: • All who attend are equal. All are welcome. • The memorial in each community is Indigenous led. • Practice kindness, gentleness, patience, and love. xiii • We are all volunteers. No one is paid. No profits are made. Prologue We also have not accepted government funding or resource- extraction money. Communities that hosted wwos held many fundraisers. We also fundraised online with auctions to raise money so we could not only continue but also share our proceeds with other community groups such as Tears4Justice, Two-Spirited People of Manitoba, Families of Sisters in Spirit, the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Maisy’s Foundation of Hope, Butterflies in Spirit, Awasis Sacred Journey, and Got Bannock. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, was the fifth community to host wwos. It was installed in Algoma University, in what was the Shingwauk Indian Residential School inside the former auditor- ium of the school. Naturally, we felt uncomfortable with this site. But it was the grandmothers and Elders, who were part of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, who brought such beauty to the Walking With Our Sisters “bundle.” “Bundle” is a traditional ceremonial term to describe a collection of sacred items. wwos began to be referred to by community members as a “bundle” because of the sacred items that were added by trad- itional ceremonial people at each stop along the way.
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