Edmonton Inuit bring western urban voice to pre-inquiry gathering

Organizers of a meeting in Edmonton, as a precursor to a federal inquiry into missing or murdered Aboriginal women, light candles Saturday in memory of Inuit women who have gone missing or who have been murdered. (PHOTO BY ALEX BOYD)

SPECIAL TO NUNATSIAQ NEWS

EDMONTON — As the federal government lays the groundwork for its promised inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, Inuit living in southern cities want to make sure their voices are heard.

Edmonton Inuit and interested members of the community gathered April 2 in Alberta’s capital for a pre-inquiry session to offer input on an Inuit-specific approach.

Inuit Edmontonmiut, a new group representing Inuit in the city, hosted the event on behalf of Tungasuvvingat Inuit, which is compiling notes from a handful of similar events across the country.

Norma Dunning, vice president of the Edmonton group, says its members welcomed the opportunity to provide input because, while other Aboriginal groups across the country and northern Inuit have been consulted, urban Inuit are often lost in the mix.

“I don’t think it’s an intentional oversight, it’s just based on dominant Aboriginal population,” said Dunning. “But there was that gap, so we’re able to fill it by hosting [the event] here in Edmonton.”

A 2014 report from the RCMP estimated there were almost 1,200 Indigenous women who have gone missing or been murdered in recent decades, though other estimates put the number much higher.

While it’s not clear how many of those are Inuit, Meeka Otway, president of the Inuit Edmontonmiut, emphasized the unique risks faced by women and girls who move south.

“When I first moved to Alberta, I realized that I didn’t know any place to reach out for help. Fortunately my husband is from here,” she said, adding that many southern cities still lack supports specifically for Inuit.

“If I were to come down here without any family members, you don’t know where to start. You don’t know where to look for housing. You don’t know where you go for employment. There’s just not a lot of information that is accessible to you.”

As Inuit move to southern cities in increasing numbers the need for better supports grows.

The 2006 Statistics Canada census reported that about one in five Inuit lived outside traditional Inuit territories in the North. That could mean about 15,000 Inuit, with an estimated 1,500 or so in Edmonton.

It’s one of the reasons the Edmontonmiut was formed, but Otway says an inquiry could also look at better ways to support women far from home.

Several participants also wanted the inquiry to address the challenges southern Inuit face when a loved one goes missing or is murdered. The cost of a flight home for a funeral is prohibitive, for example.

Otway pointed out that more Inuit in the South means families are often spread over enormous distances, creating a need for more reliable means of communication. She recently found out about a death in the family via Facebook, she said.

As part of the gathering, those in attendance lined up to say a few words and one-by-one, scooped up a bit of sand and added it to a vase to symbolize the burial that many missing or murdered women haven’t gotten yet, and may never get.

For elder Mini Aodla Freeman the need to find and give them a proper burial should be one of the most important goals of the inquiry.

“In the Inuit community, we really care who dies, and the people who lost their relatives, they really care,” she said. “I think we should experience the same in the South with our fellow Inuit.”

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has mostly completed her information gathering and is in the process of designing the upcoming national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

She has said she hopes to launch the inquiry this summer or fall but no date has yet been set.