On a day filled with grief, loss and despair, one word encompassed the goal of hundreds in southern Alberta — healing.
Members of the Blood Tribe gathered in Stand Off to walk and speak up on Red Dress Day for those who can no longer do the same.
“Coming together collectively in spirit, in ceremony, is integral to the healing, the continued healing that we walk each and every day,” said Terri-Lynn Fox, director of the wellness program at the Blood Tribe department of health.
Fox said the walk is an important step in the reconciliation process.
“It brings our community together. It brings our people together, whether it’s for awareness, prevention, intervention, creating continued pathways, but the walk itself is symbolic,” she said.
It has a profound impact on those who have experienced first hand the damage of losing loved ones to violence.
“As I saw them walking down, the sirens going, it just brought tears to me because I’ve lost family that has been missing and murdered. It meant a lot to me,” said Gloria Chief Moon, who also works at the Blood Tribe department of health.
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Hundreds of people walk or march on Red Dress Day each year. The national day honours missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited and other LGBTQI+ people, but boys and men are not left out either.
Healing doesn’t come easily. Still, Chief Moon says Canada has come a long way in the journey of trauma recovery.
“We’re taking a stance now. We’re being more proactive and we just want to educate people. We just want people to realize we’re human beings and that someone that’s been murdered or has been missing.
“That’s someone’s son, that’s someone’s father, that’s someone’s daughter, that’s someone’s sister, that’s someone’s child.”
She says the openness for Indigenous people to express their culture has helped tremendously and the future is bright, even if change can’t happen overnight.
“People are really going back to ceremony and that’s part of healing. So, we encourage everybody to participate in part of their healing process because we know we need to get a stronger community,” she said.
“I see, down the road, there’s going to be a lot of healing taking place.”
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