The Timmins Native Friendship Centre (TNFC) will be holding a series of events and activities in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).
Every Oct. 4, Sisters in Spirit vigils are held across Canada to pay tribute and raise awareness about Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and LGBTQ+ people who have gone missing or have been murdered.
In Timmins, events will be taking place from Monday, Oct. 5, to Friday, Oct. 9. All events will be held either virtually or in-person at the friendship centre on Kirby Avenue.
On Monday, there will be a sacred fire at the centre in honour of MMIWG. It will be open to the public with safety precautions in place.
Throughout Tuesday, Oct. 6, the centre will be sharing videos on its Facebook page.
“At times, videos can be triggering, so we want to make sure our contact information is provided in a case an individual watching those videos requires moral support or needs to chat,” said TNFC Aboriginal Healing and Wellness co-ordinator Jaylin Renaud.
Wednesday, there will be a presentation from a Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin (I am a Kind Man) worker who will be doing activities with the students and talking about Grandfather teaching on respect and how men can be allies. The event will be live-streamed for the general public on Facebook.
Then, on Thursday, the centre will be having a Sisters in Spirit vigil starting at around 10 a.m. People are welcome to stop by to pay their respects, talk to staff, share their experiences and look at the list of names and faces of missing and murdered women and girls.
Throughout the week, there will also be a large cloth put over the fence at the centre which people can sign. It will be hung every day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will be taken down after office hours to avoid damage from weather or vandalism.
“Whether it’s a piece of artwork, a drawing, a poem, a statement or signature, that’s just a way to show the community we stand together on this, that we stand stronger together,” Renaud said. “This is not a community issue, this is a provincial issue, this is a national issue, so my goal was to bring unity in the community and show that strength in numbers and that we’re standing and speaking for the ones that can no longer do so.”
The week will conclude with another sacred fire on Friday.
Timmins Police officers and administration staff are also going to wear red pins to honour the lives of MMIWG. The pins were donated by Elisa Sutherland who got them from the Mushkegowuk Council’s Health and Wellness department, said TPS Indigenous community liaison co-ordinator Brenda Beaven.
“We recognize that even here in Timmins, there have been Indigenous women and girls that have gone missing from their homes and we want to remember them,” Beaven said. “We want to honour them and we also want to let folks know that we have open investigations into some of these missing women and we continue to look into any kind of information that comes forward as to where these women may have gone or who may have taken them or whatever may have happened.”
Beaven is also going to paint a red dress on one of the windows at the police station Monday and leave the painting for a week with a message from TPS.
“It’s just a small piece that we can do to continue to remember and honour those women and girls,” she said. “It is so important for the community to know that Timmins Police is working hard to understand, acknowledge and recognize the history of the Indigenous people in our city. And be able to remember and honour Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing and have been murdered in Canada and from our own city.”
