Today, our staff showed their support for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls by wearing a red ribbon and giving offerings of semah (tobacco) to a sacred fire in HSN’s Medicine Lodge.
In 2014, the RCMP released a report stating that from 1980 to 2012- 1,181 Indigenous women and girls had either gone missing or been murdered. Indigenous women and girls make up only 4% of Canada’s female population yet they account for 16% of all female homicides.
Amnesty International reported that Indigenous women are five times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women. In 2016, the Government of Canada announced a National Inquiry to investigate and produce solutions to reduce the violence and abuse that many Indigenous women experience. The final report from this Inquiry was released in 2019. Currently, the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is believed to be closer to 4,000, according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Read the final report.
For additional support you can contact the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls Crisis Line: 1-844-413-6649