Walk to honour MMIWG passing through northwestern Ontario

A group of cross-Canada walkers honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is currently passing through northwestern Ontario.

Their journey, titled Da-namaamin moseyang giw-ganchigaazjig kwewag -- which translates into "We will walk in prayer for those murdered women," according to organizer E Naad Maa Get -- began on Dec. 21 and will take them through or close to as many First Nations communities as possible that are accessible by road, he said.

The goal, he added, is to raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women and to work with other First Nations to find solutions to the problem, instead of waiting for the federal government's report from its inquiry into the issue to set the agenda.

"For someof them they haven't fully heard what the missing and murdered Indigenous women issue is all about, and by speaking with us they get to know at least one of the women that we walk for," he added, noting that each morning, the walkers go through reports about missing women, choose one woman to focus on, read up on her story, and share what they've learned in live streams online.

The idea for the walk came about after E Naad Maa Get participated in a water walk in his home community of Neyashiiningmiing on the Bruce Peninsula and spoke to the women there, he said.

"Listening to the stories of these women and saying how they don't feel comfortable within their own community led me to think more about the larger epidemic of these women going missing from their home communities," he explained.

"I grew up with a lot of female family, so the thought of my niece or my sister, my aunt, any of these women just becoming another statistic led me to want to be more proactive than reactive. I don't want to wait until it's one of my family members to do something," he added.

A friend helped him make the idea a reality.

Still, E Naad Maa Getsaid, any plans of following a strict itinerary went out the window long ago.

"Before we started, we went into ceremony, and one of the elders from our community shared with me that, 'I know you have plans, but things are going to unfurl as they unfurl,'" he said.

Indeed, the group lost a month and a half to vehicle troubles, but those pauses have allowed them to make connections with people who helped them, he said.

"We know where we're going. How long it's going to take us to get there, we have no idea," he said.

E Naad Maa Get is currently joined on the walk by Niibin(Tianna Fillo), who is also from Neyashiiningmiing, and two Pennsylvania women, Jacqueline Hines and Carolyn Gable.

Their home on the road is a vintage Winnebago motor home.