From left: Mayor Greg Dionne, Senator Harry Cook, Women's Commission Chair Shirley Henderson, Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte, PAPS Deputy Chief Jason Stonechild. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Sisters in Spirit

Sod-turning ceremony marks future home of monument to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Oct 1, 2020 | 4:47 PM

The downtown Prince Albert riverbank will soon be home to a Sisters in Spirit Monument to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) Women’s Commission was joined by dignitaries from PAGC and the City of P.A. for a sod-turning ceremony for the new monument Wednesday.

Women’s Commission Chair Shirley Henderson told paNOW they hoped to unveil the monument in June, but the pandemic prevented them from importing necessary supplies from the U.S. in time.

She said the location overlooking the water was chosen for its peacefulness and the surrounding natural beauty.

“It will be a place to come and peacefully sit and remember the person that’s gone missing,” Henderson said.

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While the monument is expected to be in place in May, the design is already complete. Henderson said it will feature a mother, a grandmother and two children.

“It’s going to represent how it affects the whole family,” she explained.

Along with being a gathering place for those who have lost loved ones, organizers said the monument will also bring awareness to the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern Saskatchewan and across Canada.

A 2019 national inquiry into MMIWG found deliberate and persistent human rights violations and abuses committed and condoned by the Canadian state against Indigenous women, girls and LBGTQ2S people amounted to genocide.

PAGC Grand Chief Brain Hardlotte speaks during the sod turning event while Vice Chief Christopher Jobb looks on. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Henderson explained she also hopes the highly visible monument, which will be able to be seen from the bridge, will keep unsolved cases in the public consciousness.

“I hope it will trigger some memories where [someone] will come forward and say ‘gee you know, I better say who I saw Happy Charles with,’ for instance,” she said.

Addressing the small crowd at the Wednesday event, Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte called on police to keep the cases of missing and murdered women not just open, “but more importantly active.”

“We will continue the work to search for them,” he said.

The monument committee is working with a large number of partners on the project. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Prince Albert Police Service Deputy Chief Jason Stonechild, said PAPS take missing persons cases incredibly seriously.

“We will never close a file if we don’t know what the conclusion is,” said Stonechild, who sat on the monument committee along with the mayor, and representatives from the P.A. Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and the P.A. Mulitcultural Association. “We owe that to the family and the victim that can’t speak for themselves.”

Speaking to media after the sod-turning Grand Chief Hardlotte said the story of the event was a positive one.

“I know it’s sad, very sad the family members that are still out there and there hasn’t been closure,” he said. “But we’re doing this for those families.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom