The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and LGBTQ2+ (MMIWG2S) was recognized at a special ceremony this evening at Couchiching Beach Park.
About 20 people gathered near the Terry Fox Circle to listen to stories and share support for the Indigenous community.
While there are political aspects to MMIWG2S, Krystal Brooks — the Green Party candidate in the provincial election — took off her politician's hat to organize the event. Other local politicians from various parties also attended the event to show their support.
“I have advocated for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit for a number of years,” Brooks explained. “It’s been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember.”
Brooks, 29, was in her early teens when she went to her first ‘Sisters in Spirit’ event to help bring communities together in calling for action to address many issues that impact the Indigenous community.
“There is such a lack of awareness on this issue,” she said. “It’s about so much more than just MMIW. It’s about food security, it’s about stable adequate housing, child welfare, and justice. It’s about how Indigenous women and girls suffer from targeted violence," she explained.
Brooks says she has never met an Indigenous woman, girl, or two-spirit that doesn’t have a story.
“We all have our truths and our traumas,” she said. “It all goes back to residential schools and generational trauma, which is an automatic vulnerability that we are all born with.”
Brooks says Indigenous women are over-represented in Canadian jail systems, noting more than 70 percent of the prison population is Indigenous females.
“It’s very easy to pass it off as delinquents or bad parenting,” she said. “I think a lot of people have been looking away, but they are starting to ask the important questions.”
With the multiple discoveries of remains of Indigenous children found buried under residential schools in recent months, Brooks says Indigenous issues are starting to have a breakthrough, which makes hosting events like the one in Couchiching Beach Park on Thursday of the utmost importance.
“When people come out to listen and to be educated, it means the world to me,” she said. “I’ve held events like this before and there was never a single non-native person there. But that is changing.”
Brooks says the City of Orillia and many of its community members have been "great partners" of the local Indigenous community and have been willing to learn and listen.
“Mayor (Steve) Clarke lowered the flags (at city hall) for today,” Brooks said. “That is amazing because to my knowledge they have never lowered the flags for MMIW before.”
Brooks thanked everybody who wore red today, and everybody who attended the event to show their support.
