Families to gather in Regina for first-in-Saskatchewan MMIWG event

For the first time, families of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls will be able to gather next week at a conference in Saskatchewan organized and planned by other families.

The event is called Mamawe! Mekowishwewin miyomachowin: Being Together Gives us Solace, and it’s set to happen Nov. 8-10 in Regina.

Danielle Ewenin is one of the organizers. She said there are 274 family members registered with 148 children of missing or murdered women, and there are another 20 families with children on the waiting list.

Ewenin said the fact so many have registered means it’s obviously very important to people. She said it’s important the event is done by families for families because they’re their own best experts.

She explained that in other parts of the country, families are encouraged to take the initiative, but they don’t feel that way in Saskatchewan.

“Here we had felt, up to this point, our role was really passive when there would be gatherings for families,” Ewenin said. “Information would be given to us and we would be sitting there and taking in all of this information on grief, or on searches, on all of those things. And the getting together of families would happen on coffee breaks and in the hallways.”

Ewenin isn’t just an organizer, she’s also a family member. Her sister Laney was killed outside of Calgary in 1982.

Ewenin said Laney was driven out of town and left on the road on the coldest night of the year. Ewenin doesn’t have much good to say about the police investigation, calling it atrocious.

Ewenin has gone to similar national conferences and said she now considers people she has met there as family.

The conference will include sharing between families, and talks from prominent children of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

There will also be space on the last day for the families to talk about the future and what’s next.

“We can help each other with our healing, that being together brings us solace and comfort that going to a therapist or sitting in a healing circle doesn’t,” explained Ewenin.

“And (we can begin) to create that change on the ground in our own communities, in our own homes, and affect that change to reduce the violence against Indigenous women and girls and two-spirited.”

She also hopes the event will help empower families and amplify the families’ voice, pointing out the big role families had in making the MMIWG inquiry happen.

The event has managed to raise $271,000 for expenses thus far through grants and sponsorship, but it’s still looking for help.

Ewenin said organizers have reached out to all 74 First Nations bands in Saskatchewan to ask for a donation of $3,000. She added that if just 30 were to give, then organizers would be able to accommodate all the families on the waiting list. Six have responded thus far.