UPDATED May 1: The start location for the march has been changed to Huntsville’s Royal Canadian Legion.
Hope Arises will hold a march this weekend to remember missing and murdered Indigenous Women.
Joyce Crone, president of the not-for-profit, says the “Moc Mile” starts at 8:45 a.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion in Huntsville on May 5, with a ceremony reading out the names of women and girls who have been lost. Participants will then march from Brunel Road to Main Street and back.
Crone says the walk was named for traditional Indigenous Moccasins, and although they’re the recommended footwear, showing up is more important.
“I’ve had so many people come up to me to say ‘what can I do, how can I help’,” says Crone. “So this is really an act of solidarity, an act toward stepping up to that line and saying ‘I’m going to support this’.”
The event is in honour of Red Dress Day, with Crone also encouraging participants to wear red or carry a red dress, symbolic of the missing and murdered women. “We all bleed red. On the outside, we are all different colours but on the inside, we are all the same,“ says Crone.
According to Crone, Indigenous Women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered, and four times more likely to be the victim of physical or sexual abuse. She notes that from 1980 to 2012, nearly 2,000 Indigenous women were murdered in Canada, with 225 of those remaining unsolved.
“It seems like we’re treading water because we know this isn’t just historical, that this continues to happen,” says Crone. “We have women and girls who have gone missing, and women who have been murdered. Their families are still mourning their deaths because their bodies are still out there somewhere.”
However, Crone says with adversity comes resilience. On May 7, Hope Arises will host a “Circle of Strength” ribbon skirt workshop at the Huntsville Public Library from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
“In a circle, we are all equal,” says Crone. “Which means whether you’re Indigenous or not, we should be inclusive, accepting, and we should stand together in moving forward.”