This year, National Red Dress Day fell on a Sunday so our school could not attend the local Edmonton rally as we normally do. To commemorate the day later that week, a Grade 12 student, Jasmine, lead a school-wide presentation about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in the gym that was attended by about 60 people. To bring personal context to each province's experiences with the topic, she invited three staff members to assist with her talk. Russell spoke about Starlight Tours in Saskatchewan, Elder Marjorie spoke about the Highway of Tears in British Columbia, and Mark conducted a smudge to support her in representing Manitoba.
““I wanted to acknowledge the Missing and Murdered Indigenous peoples..and educate our school that this issue isn’t happening in one particular place; it’s happening all across Canada. I wanted to take time to honour our ancestors and spread awareness.” ”
Jasmine said she was drawn to this topic from hearing about it in her classes at Inner City High School. In her own words she said: “I wanted to acknowledge the Missing and Murdered Indigenous peoples. When I was learning about the issues in Indigenous communities, this topic caught my interest the most. Growing up I never heard of it, so it made me wonder how much other people knew. I wanted to educate our school that this issue isn’t happening in one particular place; it’s happening all across Canada. I wanted to take some time to honour our ancestors and spread awareness.”
We were very proud of Jasmine. Public speaking is not an easy endeavor and this is a difficult topic, as many in our Edmonton school share personal connections to MMIWG. She says she would like to do more presentations about this in the larger community.