While awareness has risen over the past three years, as long as there are missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), there will be walks in their honour.
The third annual Walk With Our Sisters event is scheduled for Monday, May 5, 2025. The event, which is held each year in order to raise awareness around the crisis of MMIWG, begins at the Fort Frances Senior Centre, then proceeds north on Victoria Avenue before turning west onto Scott Street and ending up at the United Native Friendship Centre (UNFC). Each year the walk aims to honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, to acknowledge the grief and torment families of these women continue to suffer, and to raise awareness surrounding the issue, according to walk organizers.
“This is our third annual Walk With Our Sisters, and it is growing in size” said Rhonda Howells, who works with the Northwestern Ontario Metis Child and Family Services (NWOMCFS) and is part of the walk’s organizing committee.
“This year we have more people partnering with us to do this event. The basis of the of the event is still the same, we start at the Senior Centre, and from there we will have a short ceremony and acknowledgement of missing and murdered in the community. Then from there we will walk down Victoria onto Scott Street, go up Scott Street and end up here at the United native Friendship Centre, where we’re going to have lunch.”
Those participating in the walk are encouraged to wear skirts or ribbon shirts if available, but everyone is welcome to take part regardless.
The organizations who are helping to put the event together include the NWOMCFS, UNFC, Senior Centre, Treaty #3 Police Service, Rainy River District Shelter of Hope, Couchiching Fire and Rescue, Couchiching First Nation, Kaakewaaseya Justice Services, Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services and the District of Rainy River Services Board.
This year’s event will also be incorporating the Moose Hide campaign, an initiative which promotes cultural sensitivity and anti-racism, while also working to engage Canadians to end violence against women and children. Participants in the walk will receive a small piece of moose hide to symbolize their commitment.
“It’s basically a commitment to take action to honour women and children, and it’s primarily focusing on men protecting the women and children in their lives,” Howells said.
The event strives to raise awareness surrounding MMIWG by helping to dismantle the myths that it is only the most marginalized in a community who are affected by the crisis. While the public may continue to believe that only those suffering from addictions or homelessness are at risk, the reality is that anyone in a community, including right here in Fort Frances, can be a victim.
“This can impact like everyone from newborn to the elderly and we typically in Fort Frances like to think we live in our safe little community, but we really it’s happening all around us,” Howells said.
“So education and acknowledgement is our best opportunity to deal with this, as opposed to burying our heads in the sand, so to speak.”
“The whole issue of violence against women right now is, I feel like it’s getting worse every year,” said Brandis Oliver, Memengwaawag Liaison and Case Manager for Giishkaandago’Ikwe Health Services.
“Like I’m seeing more and more girls going missing on Facebook, every day there’s somebody new going missing. And it just seems like there is a perpetual cycle of violence starting back up again against women. So doing this kind of work and giving that information is the only thing that we can do to stop that. But I think people themselves need to take responsibility in the way that they’re treating women and that they’re treating children.”
The walk also allows local organizations to learn more about the people in the community and to cross-promote with other organizations.
“It gives opportunities to network with people who are in roles very similar to ours, where we have crossover and clients” said Summer, a healing and wellness worker with UNFC.
“But then also realizing that some of the clients that we’re dealing with who have been exposed to trafficking, or are involved in trafficking, or at least know someone that is, they don’t know that a big statistic is that 67 percent of trafficking cases from 2019 to 2022, was just Ontario. So that’s a huge portion, and that’s one thing that a lot of people don’t realize: that we’re a province that is heavily used for trafficking. So even if we don’t see it with our eyes in our local Walmart, someone somewhere in this town is probably affected or involved or in some way skimmed by it. So just little statistics like that, and just educational stuff to be like it is here. It’s on our back door, and even if we don’t look out the window, it’s still there, so how are we going to combat that?”
