Fronting a large group of people taking part in the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People March on Friday were flag bearers holding high a banner about Kristina Ward.
She is the 20-year-old Langley woman last seen on surveillance video on Sept. 27, 2017, in north central Surrey with an unidentified man.
“Every year on the anniversary of her disappearance, Kristina’s family and the community come together and they walk the last known steps that Kristina Ward took,” noted Katie Pearson, with the Lower Fraser Valley Aboriginal Society.
Organizers of Langley’s fourth MMIW march want to keep her missing person case in the spotlight as an example of the many unsolved cases of murdered and missing Indigenous women and two-spirit people.
According to the Assembly of First Nations, Indigenous women are 16 per cent of female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women yet are about two per cent of the Canadian population.
In front of the speakers, as a symbol of the perils Indigenous women and LGBTQ2S people face in society, was a bear skin rug with speakers touching on the current social media debate ‘man or bear’ about why most women, if alone in the woods, feel safer encountering a bear.
Fern Gabriel (sesmélət), a Kwantlen First Nations elder and educator, encouraged people to move beyond awareness into challenging those who have the power to change society for the better, including police, the justice system, media, and average citizens.
“Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be taken than any other cultural group,” she noted. “Sixty per cent of the murders are unsolved.”
Men need to be challenged, she said.
“Oh my Indigenous sisters out there, we have to hold these young men accountable,” Gabriel told the crowd.
Men of various ages were asked to go on the stage and read cards about various murdered and missing Indigenous women and two-spirit people, including about Kristina Ward, as a unique way to give voice to victims. The words spoke were from the victims or their family members.
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