Manitoba healing centre to help families of missing, murdered Indigenous women

Families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls will be among those benefiting from a new facility in Manitoba that melds First Nations and Western healing.

The facility, which opened this week, will especially help those from the Sagkeeng First Nation, which has the highest number ofunsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, based on a CBC News analysis.

• SagkeengFirst Nation has most unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women
• New centre bringing First Nation traditions to healing in Manitoba

A recent ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Monday for the Giigewigamig Traditional Healing Centre, which is located in the hospital in Pine Falls, Man., near the First Nation.

Giigewigamig means a "place of healing" in the Anishinaabe language.

"The healing centre is to heal. It's for healing, for everybody," saidSagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson.

Patsy Fontaine, 60, of Sagkeeng will be one of the family members to utilize the centre, which will allow people who are using the hospital to access traditional healing services and medicines.

Fontainesaidduring the late1980s,she lost her cousin, Barbara Two Heart,whom she called her sister. Two Heart was in her late teens and in her first trimester of pregnancy when she was killed by her husband.

She also lost her younger sister, Moira Louise Erb, whose body was found in September 2003 northwest of the city.

• Unresolved: The case of Moira Louise Erb

Memorial in the works

Community members in Sagkeeng have been working on building a monument to honour and acknowledge the many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from its community.

Lillian M. Cook, 52, of Sagkeeng, has been helping family members, and she wrote the proposal for the monument on behalf of the community.

They are proposing a memorial park with a water fountain to honour missing and murdered women and girls, as well as boys and men.

The bronze statue would be of an Indigenous traditional female dancer in regalia in her early 20s, symbolizing those who have gone missing or been slain.

A sculptor has already been selected to design the monument.

"We're still meeting with the families to finalize a few things. Once we finalize that, we'll make a big announcement," Henderson said.

The most recent tragedy to strike Sagkeeng is the death of Serena McKay, a high school student.

• 'It has to end': Sagkeeng mother calls for action following murder of Serena McKay
• It was all about love':funeral for Serena McKay celebrates how she lived

Two teenage girls have been arrested in connection with her death.

National inquiry invited to community

The community has also invited commissioners from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to visit Sagkeeng.

"We can hold one of the hearings there," Henderson said. "There are people that have been affected by this, probably one of the larger [communities]."

CBC News asked the inquiry commission to confirm ifa future hearing will be held in Sagkeeng.

Sue Montgomery, a senior communications adviser with the commission, told CBC News there are no dates or locations set after its first hearing scheduled for May 30in Whitehorse and that expert testimony will be taken over the summer, with hearings to resume in the fall.