(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Rememberance and Awareness

Marguerite Riel Centre hosts postponed MMIWGS2 walk

May 29, 2025 | 5:37 PM

The Marguerite Riel Centre in Melfort hosted a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people walk on Thursday afternoon at the Memorial Gardens.

An event which was postponed from its original planned date earlier this month (May 5, Red Dress Awareness Day), took place to remember those people and bring awareness to the tragic statistics.

“We did the walk and held a barbecue, and it helps us to remember the memories of those that are lost, and just to help create awareness,” said Director of Operations Joanne Yakowec.

“It’s really important to honour those that we’ve lost or that may still be missing, but also to help support the families. It’s an ongoing, long-term thing when you have somebody missing, it just doesn’t end right away, so it’s important to still be able to be there to support families of those that are missing or that have passed on.”

Fundraiser underway

Nipawin Region Health Foundation kicks off 'Pledge Drive War'

5h ago

fire crews

Type 3 firefighters deployed to La Ronge, mayor optimistic about current wildfire situation

6h ago

Group home officially open

Group home officially opens in Humboldt

6h ago

According to statistics, Indigenous women, girls and two spirit people make up 55 per cent of women who are missing or are victims of homicide in Saskatchewan.

Also, out of all women in Canada, Indigenous women experience the highest rate of violence, as they are five times more likely to experience a violent death than non-Indigenous Canadian women

They represent just two per cent of the population in Canada, yet they are 16 per cent of the women who are murdered or go missing.

According to Yakowec, it’s not just the women, though, as Indigenous men face similar tragedies, which has slowly become more recognized in the last two years.

Blue Jean Jacket Day (Red Dress Day for men) was launched for the first time in Edmonton on June 6, 2023.

In the coming years, the Marguerite Riel Centre will recognize those days together and walk for both.

“This year, we didn’t quite have time, when we found out, to schedule a separate event, but in the future, we will definitely be joining them together so we can honour all those who are lost or have been murdered,” Yakowec added.

Statistics Canada has said that Indigenous men and boys are seven times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous men, and that there are more than 600 recorded missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys since 1974 who have been identified.

–

news@northeastnow.com

On X @BenTompkins_8