A National Disgrace – When Is Canada’s Government Going To Take The Deaths And Disappearance Of Aboriginal Women And Girls Seriously

A Statement from  Karl Docktader

The Story of Our Community: the March 15th Rally at Montebello Park to support an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous woman and girls.

Karl Dockstader, a representative of Canada’s First Nations, addresses a rally in St. Cathatrines, Ontario for murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls. Photo by Terry Nicholls.

The bile was still stinging in our throats about the federal government believing they had done enough to address to the tragedy of the disproportionate rates of violence inflicting itself on our First Nations communities.

When Jamie Bugg McGean called me last Saturday and said Shawn Brant and some supporters had been arrested for trying to defend the women, I was with my nephew Mark David Hupkowicz. We talked to Jeffrey B Hill, Justin Vigneux-Dockstader, Dylan Powell, Philip Davis, Ngo-madaas Paradis, Mitch Baird, and other community members right away.

We knew we had to get something going quick and we knew we needed the wisdom of our communities’ women. We immediately reached out to Kanato’ha Dockstader, Mkwa Kwe, Zhoonge De Kwe Shawana, Leigh Ann Hill,Sherry Emmerson, Char VanEvery, Jennifer Brant, Fiona McMurran, Natalie Blue Raven Rubyhill, Valerie Moses,Elizabeth Chitty, Patty Wbk, Audra Sewell Maloney, Marie Louise B, Cooper Melanie, Sarah McGean and others for guidance.

Within hours, we all reached consensus that something needed to be done. We needed to support the women. In less than a week, we planned a rally, and gathered support from across the province. Fresh in the minds of reporters who had just witnessed the government’s inaction on this matter, the media picked up the story.

Hundreds endure the cold at a rally at St. Catharines’ Montebello Park for murderd and missing Native women and girls. Photo by Terry Nicholls

This was led by our own people’s media through the emerging voice of the people and Tom Keefer the GM of the peoples news, The Two Row Times, helped us get our word into print. The young men and women trying to better themselves professionally at NPAAMB (Niagara Peninsula Aboriginal Area Management Board), like Terry Whitlow, LJ Jamieson, working under the guidance of emerging media artist Michael Summers, recorded some of our thoughts while we raced to get this event together and to spread the word. Like a snowball tumbling down a hill, Vic Mucciarone, Daniel Nardone, and more young leaders from Brock were quick to offer guidance and support.

Wendy Sturgeon, the Executive Director of the Niagara Chapter of Native Woman, and Jaynane Burning Fields, the Executive Director of the Niagara Regional Native Centre, were rapid in their supportive efforts to encourage this community initiative. Sympathetic community leaders like Karen Head offered words of encouragement. Letters from the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres and the Ontario Native Women’s Association were populating our inboxes. Doctors and Reverends alike were inquiring, wanting to know what to do to help.

Jennifer Brant, a member of the Mohawk Nation and volunteer director of the Niagara Regional Native Cenre,  pleads for justice at the Niagara rally with Jeff Hill., past president of the Indian Defense League of America, at her side. Photo by Terry Nicholls

The day of the event the bitter, cold wind and overcast skies seemed to mirror the attitude of Rick Dykstra, who the day previous had made it clear that he was not interested in taking part in a “protest” that was supporting the “wrong approach.” Despite swirling cold winds, and bitter cold attitudes from those opposed to an inquiry, our event was brought to life by our combined efforts. The sage medicine burning for the Eagle Staff burned like a fireball as speaker after speaker gave rousing accounts of what needed to be done to help our woman who have gone for decades without being helped. The government wasn’t doing it right, and we were here to tell them how exactly to do it.

Speakers ranging from Welland MP, Malcolm Allen, on the settler side of the Two Row Wampum, to Allan Jamieson Sr, clearly on the Haudenosaunee side of the Two Row Wampum, spoke up. Our speakers included the likes of Elisabeth Zimmerman, Executive Director of the YWCA, and many of our women and men who wanted to offer words and support to fan the flame of unity and the decisive path to the long journey of righting a very harmful wrong. Well over a hundred people, including reporters and politicians Dan Fortier, Cindy Forster, and Laura Ep, attended.

By the time we had rallied and marched, our sense of satisfaction was bittersweet. As our spirits became nourished by the beautiful drum beat of the women’s hand drum group that played the crowd out of the park, our minds realized that this was no epilogue. It was part of the prologue of the lifelong story of what people need to do in an effort to try to help other people. The unsolved cases, the gruesome crimes, the rape, the incest, the fear, the horrors that haunt the lives of all women and girls who are so at risk to be victims deserve our continued attention.

I hope that when I tell my granddaughters this story that it is unfathomable to them that there was time when life was like this for Aboriginal woman and girls. I hope they don’t have to know how hard those of us that are being supportive have had to work. I hope they don’t know the fear, the racism, the apathy, the government inaction that these women today know. The only thing I hope they know is this:

Women are sacred, special and gifted and every woman deserves our love, respect and attention.

Karl Dockstader is a Niagara, Ontario resident and, most importantly, is member of the Oneida Nation First Nation, and a volunteer Director of the Niagara Regional Native Centre, though his views don’t necessarily reflect the views of either. 

Visit related story on Niagara At Large by clicking on https://niagaraatlarge.com/2014/03/05/a-call-from-a-niagara-ontario-member-of-canadas-first-nation-for-a-federal-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women/ .

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