Honour Walk for Marlene Bird in Saskatoon

“She is improving greatly. She is able to talk and able to blink her eyes, able to communicate with people,” Henderson said.

“She is starting to realize what has happened in terms of she has lost her legs. She's come to the realization that that is a critical point in her healing journey and it has only begun.”

Bird will remain in hospital in Edmonton for a couple more weeks before being transferred to a Saskatoon hospital for the rest of her recovery.

Bird's assault shocked Canadians from coast to coast and since different organizations and the Montreal Lake Cree Nation have been collecting donations. Henderson said as of last week, the Prince Albert YWCA had collected over $11,000 and the First Nation had collected around $2,000 to be put in a trust for Bird.

“She's very blessed at this point in terms of the support that she is getting,” he said, adding they are still factoring in how much Bird will need.

“We want to get a house for her that is wheelchair accessible, she's going to need that … We will have to figure out the costs associated with after care, also with some of the other things like a living allowance.”

Along with Bird's aunt Lorna Thiessen and other organizers, Henderson said that they are developing some innovative projects based on partnership building and will be doing a national fundraising campaign to tackle the issue of violence against aboriginal women. They will also be hosting the First Annual Canadian Indigenous Women Conference as part of a call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women in November in Saskatoon

Saskatoon Police to build memorial for missing and murdered Aboriginal women

Along with police directing traffic at the memorial walk, Saskatoon Police Chief (SPS) Clive Weighill joined officers and those who were hitting the pavement in Bird's honour.

“We want to show support for the issue of violence against women in our society. It is important for awareness marches like this to keep this mainstream,” Weighill explained. “People have to be talking about this, we need to find some solutions.”

Although the Bird assault happened in a different city, Weighill said a victimization rate of five to six time higher for aboriginal women is an issue across the country.

“I think it shocked everybody right across Canada … Across the prairie provinces we have a huge marginalized aboriginal population and they are living in poverty, poor housing, you throw some racism on top of that and it leads to some of the criminal outcomes that we are seeing,” he said.

“It's the social conditions that we need to work on, that's what's going to be the game changer here.”

One of the steps SPS will be taking is creating a memorial for missing and murdered Aboriginal women at the new police headquarters.

“I think it will be symbolic, a place to start awareness marches or a place to end, or just some place for people to reflect,” Weighill said.

Aboriginal Relations Consultant for SPS Monica Goulet joined Weighill in the walk.

“Our police chief is a real champion when it comes to supporting this because it's very important in our community, so many of our women are affected,” she said.

“I always feel really disturbed in my gut when I hear about situations like (Bird's assault). That we live in a community where aboriginal women are so dehumanized and almost deemed dispensable. That amount of violence is very, very disturbing to me as an aboriginal woman.”

The memorial is funded through a partnership with SPS, the Saskatoon Tribal Council, and the provincial government. SPS will be holding public consultations on July 29 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to come up with an idea for the memorial.

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On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by Kelly Malone

Honour Walk for Marlene Bird in Saskatoon

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