Missing, Murdered Indigenous People Stories

I’m a survivor, I am a family advocate, and a family member. So, you know, coming from those realms its important to me to just share as much as I possibly can. My mother, Ruby Anne Macdonald, she was murdered her in Edmonton in 1999, was the you know awaking point for me of how we are treated in this country and what we had to fight through and what we’re still fighting through. It’s really sad though, you know my mother never received any kind of justice, no you know, no kind of care really, it was my Fort McKay family that came in to care for her while we were out there looking for the person who took her life. We were successful bringing him in but again I had to watch him walk away and that really broke me. I went into, you know, a lot of addiction and problems, and you know I just felt like I didn’t want to be here anymore. Unfortunately, years after that happened to my mother, it happened to me; a man tried to murder me off Yellowhead trail, and I had to fight for my life. And I ran so fast that I ran out of my shoes, so when I called for police to come they left me there, they never came because they asked what nationality is the woman that that happened to, and when I said Aboriginal or native, they left me there. So long walk home in my bare feet, and knowing this happens to my people, knowing this happens to our women and girls, and this is what happening to me, and after that I changed my life. That was about, that was twenty-seven years ago when that happened to me, I changed my life for the next twenty-six years and I dedicated my life for the past seventeen years is being an advocate and just sharing the story I shared with you, and sharing what happened to me, what happened to my mother is very important you know, I’m very lucky to be alive so, I feel that I have a responsibility in truth and a responsibility as a survivor and these different lenses to just make sure that I, you know, I try to get us safer, I try to educate, share truth, and make sure that we can make some kind of change, and just support those who need it and be a voice for others that don’t have it.  “As a way to honor your mom, what were some of her passions or goals, or is there anything else about her you would like to share” WLMN Interview Questions, (5:15, H.Williams). Well my mother was a beautiful, beautiful woman, inside and out, and unfortunately she went to not only one but two residential schools, so she carried a lot of extra hurt, a lot of extra abuse, because she was such a beautiful girl, such a beautiful woman, that kind of attention in a survival time for her made it harder for her. But you know just being her daughter and you know, learning a lot about her she was a wonderfully talented dancer, she was one of the first gogo dancer, indigenous woman gogo dancer for the bands in Alberta, that was something she never shared with us, that’s something I found out later. And I was wondering why she would always put me in dance, she put me in modelling, she put me in acting, she do all this stuff for me. I was wondering, you know, so artistic, and why she always getting me out there which was just lovely that she’d do that for me. I remember being a little girl dancing in this pink tutu and I’d just like, looking at her like, you know, she never shared that with us. And then I found out too that she was just a wonderful hairdresser, she was a hairdresser and its funny because now that I remember as a little girl she’d used to do my hair, do my makeup, you know just like all these things with me and she taught me how to, you know, cook certain things, she was a wonderful cook, but so talented in the arts, just so talented, music lover, oh she loved music, she really loved music, so I think that’s where I got that from, so you know now I’m on stages, opening for big names, now im a professional recording artist, she made sure that we had a lot of music in the home, we always had music in the home, and she loved all kinds of music it doesn’t matter what kind it was, as long as it spoke to her, it spoke to us. I remember going through all the records we used to have so I’m really grateful for that. Music was my confidont, my friend, my healer, it still is. So yeah, those are some wonderful things about her. And also I just remember her beautiful hands, she had these beautiful hands and her handwriting was just immaculate so, those are some things I remember but I just remember her being so fun, loving person that was just so about life and creation, and you know so those are the beautiful things I remember about her. “As a survivor, what are some key takeaways or truths that you want society to understand?” WLMN Interview Questions, (8:15, H. Williams) As a survivor, that trauma bleeds into our everyday in different levels, I think that’s a big thing and our loved ones and what happened to us, it never goes away, it never goes away. It just depends on how we handle ourselves, how we react to things, how we take our steps in our healing journey. You know, I just want people to know that these horrible things that have happened to us historically are still happening to us today, and right now we are in a lot of danger, we’re still not safe. You know, that’s part of my job, is trying to change that and trying to keep us safe, and its really hard when the people who created the problem are doing the financial cutback to our solutions, so its really sad that our, you know, murdered and missing funding is now cut, so that’s a big issue for this country and the families. We have a lot of work to do We’re still going through genocide, we’re still going through racism, were still going through planned oppression, and when the legal system allows people to hurt us with minimal time, when a country doesn’t charge human traffickers with human trafficking, we’re in trouble. We’re the most hunted and targeted population in this country though its our own country, though we are the lowest population wherever we go, we are highly highly targeted ad hunted, because this country has told the public that we are disposable. And so, with things like the national inquiry, when the public and all people are not answering the calls, us survivors feel very failed, we feel very failed even still to this day. There’s not a justice system, it’s a legal system, and people say its broken, but we don’t believe it to be so, we just can’t go to the people that created the problem for the solutions, so we’re realizing that. I think that as survivors as well, we need more right leadership to be leaders for their people and community. I think more than ever right now when we keep being failed in these systems that’s don’t work for us, and yeah we need a lot more leadership to come back down to ground and you know, as a survivor and a grassroots person, I think grassroots is very very important and it should be more supported, that’s a big one. And as a survivor, I think we need to make a choice everyday of how much we love ourselves enough to build ourselves back up to heal, I think that’s the biggest thing is that many of us don’t value ourselves and we don’t love ourselves enough because we let the trauma pain block that, and we have to do everything we can to piece that little shell that’s broken within us in order to move forward, in order to take those steps everyday that we need to take. So, I think the most important thing is self love and self care, at this point as a survivor, and just making sure that we don’t leave ourselves behind on the back burner, though we try to move fiercely forward for others, we just have to remember not to forget ourselves for you. “In terms of justice and healing, what do these words mean to you?” WLMN Interview question, (11:57, H. Williams) Well, justice is a mythical thing, its not really, its not something you really see, its not something that we really hear in our communities. WE are utterly failed in justice, so that’s a word that’s not really used that much, I think, it’s a word for other people other than Indigenous People. So, you know, I don’t think we’re ever going to get the proper healing we deserve until we get the justice, we’re rightfully deserved. That’s a big thing, but we have a lot of people that don’t know truth, so when it comes to justice and healing, you need to know truth, you need to be woke, you can’t be in your slumper anymore, because only when we know the truth of what’s happening to our people can we actually make that change, and like I said I think with justice and healing, leadership has to take on a bigger role, leadership has to take on a bigger role, and also I think with justice and healing, the lateral violence has to go. I think that’s the biggest thing that prevents us from even having either of these things, especially the healing, because you know we are all at a place in an overpopulated world where mental health is an issue. We’re overstimulated, our phones are a curse and a blessing, I mean you know, we’re trying to find balance in this world right now, but yeah I think that justice and healing has a lot to do with just being a human being, I think we’re not acting like that much right now, because I just see these things out there changing, you know, they know what’s happening to us still nothing really being done to a point where we have the responsibility as families at our own home fighters to make them well and warm and inviting and healing ourselves within our own homes, because when we try to go to those places where they say there is healing, we’re failed there or forgotten there. And I think our men and boys have to be included in all of this as well, we can’t leave them out; they are some of the highest rates as well, and so I think that’s really important that we have our men and boys be the protectors and warriors they were always meant to be. But I think with healing, you know that’s been with us since time of memorial, the power that we have, the resilience that we have is always within us, but we let this trauma, this anger, this hurt, and this pain block that, so its really important to piece the broken child within us because then we can move forward better, and get that healing and then go fight for that justice, because right now we really have to fight, its such a horrific outrage how we are failed in that. “Through events like this and when sharing your story, what are some final takeaways you would like society to learn from this?” Interview questions, (15:25, H. Williams) So that’s the thing is you need to come down to ground to find truth, you need to come talk to survivors to extend on that truth, and you need the grassroots advocates and the community people that actually love their people and are actually doing the work to be more elevated and supported, you know, but with these cuts we’re in danger, we’re in danger more than ever now with these cuts. So, I don’t understand how any Canadian would allow this to happen when they know its happening to us. I think that, you know, we have to come together more, show up for one another more, and I just want the public to know that though this is happening to us, it is happening to so many. Yes we are the highest rates of everything awful in this country, but that is more of a strategic thing, this country does have an agenda against its owners, right, so you know, that’s our land, that’s our water, those are our trees, and I think we need to connect more to that as well. I think more Canadians need to just come together, show up for one another, you know when we are having these gatherings, when we are having these rallies and fights we need you to show up, we need you to have truth and correct those racist people when they say something; be a voice for us when we’re not around. And make sure you have the right people who are well and love their people, elevate them in those spaces and have all non-Canadians should be trained in all of this of what’s the truth and what’s really happening, and then its important for public to know the safety precautions of what’s happening when human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in this country. I think we have a lot more to do for each other. We need to be keeping each other safe, and not only that, we don’t need the smokescreen and distractions of people being separated, people fighting and arguing, because the fight isn’t between you and I, the fight is out there with the people who fail us everyday, so that’s the biggest thing; be your own advocate, be a voice for your people, and be a voice for those that are utterly failed, which is our population of peoples. You know, create that really great friendship that can always be created still, its not there yet, but I think that more people are awakening to truth, and when you have the truth that’s when you can truly make a change.

Well, he was uh, oh it’s hard to even talk about him right now, you know? He was a good kid, he lived his own life, and it wasn’t the best kind of life that I would’ve wanted him to have But he went off on his own, I think he was fourteen when he left. But he has a heart of gold, you had to know him to see that part of him, and the highest respect for women He couldn’t see a woman even carrying groceries and he would go and help them, even if he didn’t know them. He was like that with women. I had said that to him, I said, “Don’t ever touch a woman in anger, don’t ever hit a woman.” After a while I thought, “hmm I kinda sorry I said that because he’s the one that’s getting hit”, you know? But yeah, he was a good kid, just went down the wrong road with all his friends, in and out of jail, in and out of jail. When he was in jail, I was happy because I knew where he was, when he wasn’t, oh god, I’d just worry, if he’s still alive or whatever, you know? And turns out, that’s eventually what happened to him, somebody murdered him. We had a ceremony for him, just kind of put him to rest, we had kind of like a funeral for him, it was twenty-one years that we’ve been searching for him. And it’s kind of funny, most of the people that were there were girls, girls that he knew from the reserve, yeah they all came there. Not many guys, but girls he had. That’s about him in a nutshell. “Regarding him, is there anything specific like his passions or goals that you would like to share about him?” WLMN Interview Questions (3:50, H. Williams). I don’t think he had any goals because of the life he was leading, that was, that’s what he wanted to do and that’s where he stayed. But you know he was an awesome artist, from the time he was, I don’t know about seven or eight I first saw his drawings, I was just shocked. The talent he had, and he didn’t have to look at a picture to draw, he’d just do it on his own. We got some of his stuff, drawings and that that we’re trying to find, because all of a sudden they all went, people are hiding them or something but, yeah, he was artistic. You met him, you didn’t get that meanness off him, you just didn’t. He was just a funny kid who did his thing his own way. “Are there any words you’d like to use to describe your healing through this?” WLMN Interview Questions (5:25, H. Williams) Well, I don’t know. The strength I guess, I get from all the years we spent looking for him, trying to find him. But it’s always with me, not only the times we’re searching, I’ll think about him, somewhere along the way, I’ll think about him when I’m driving or something, but uh, I have a lot of regrets. I should have done this, I should’ve done that, I should’ve said this, not knowing we were gonna lose him at such a young age. But we did talk a lot just before he passed, every day we talked about his childhood. He really despised his dad, wanted nothing to do with him, yeah. “With this campaign, is there anything you would hope certain people would understand from this?” (7:00, H. Williams) I’m at a loss of what to say here, really. There’s so many people out there that don’t know where their loved ones are and they have to go out and look, don’t forget about them Just because you don’t know where they are, they’re somewhere, somewhere if you look, you’ll find them. Even with us we spent about twenty-one years looking, and we always thought we were gonna find him, and we just, nothing yet. We get people saying, “this guy murdered him, that guy murdered him.” But I don’t really listen to that, I just want to find him, period. Don’t forget about them, they are laying out there, whatever is left of them, that needs to be found. Can’t just let them leave, or your life. Sometimes I’ll be thinking about it, and I’ll ask Creator to help me find him, I don’t have to sit down and make myself think about it, it just comes to me that I need to ask for help. And also, St. Anthony who helps you look for stuff that you lots, he always helps you find something, I’ve been talking to him lots too and it’ll come when it comes. It’s good to share. I’d like to know what happened to him. I know I’ve gotten all kinds of stuff from people, the truth about what happened to him if there’s anybody out there that knows anything, and I know they do that are not saying anything. Maybe they’ll get in trouble, that’s why they don’t want to say anything, but if they just kind of know a little bit of something that I hadn’t heard yet, those people I want, I want them to tell me what it is they know. I’m not gonna run to the cops, I just want to know. They’ll pay for what they’ve done themselves. Not for me to pay or make them pay, you know. Don’t forget your missing loved ones, don’t forget them.

Well, James was murdered in 2011 in Edmonton, on the streets of Edmonton. He struggled with addictions, he became homeless, but you know, despite all of the negativity surrounding his death, he was murdered on the streets of Edmonton, he was still my son’s father, I still loved him very much. We weren’t together at the time of his death though because of his alcoholism, and he was an amazing person, he had a beautiful soul. He was kind, caring, he helped me raise my eldest daughter, Cece, and I just want people to know that there’s a person underneath the outside that we see when people are shuffling on the streets or dealing with addictions, that there’s a person underneath all of that; somebody that has a family, somebody that is loved, and somebody that is cared for. “What words do you have to describe your strength in healing through all of this, or your kids’ strengths in healing?” WLMN Interview Questions, (2:50, R. Davey).  Well, it’s been a long process, my son is seventeen years old and still after sixteen years of him being deceased, he’s just now starting to heal. And same with myself, grief and loss it can really affect people hugely if we don’t take the time to take care of ourselves and to find healing and to reach out, and I definitely one of those people that didn’t take the time. I self-destructed and it was the beginning of my own downward spiral in my life. Now sixteen years later with a son, a teenage son that’s ready to be eighteen, raising him all these years without a father is defiantly has been difficult. There’s always days, moments, times when his presence is missed. It’s all those firsts, those special occasions, birthdays, Christmases, the date of his death, his birthday, my son’s birthday, just you know, graduations, any big moments that my son celebrates that his lack of presence is always felt and its always seen, and I guess its going to be like that for the rest of our life. I’ve definitely been actively working on my own healing and recovery, and how ive been doing that is through culture and ceremony, and so I really had to reconnect to my own Indigenous roots in order to be able to find strength and healing, and I find strength in my ancestor, in the ceremony, in the Elders and the Knowledge Keepers that I have an opportunity to sit with. Its been a turning point in my life and its been life changing to actually embrace my culture and spirituality because my entire life up until two years ago I have been completely disconnected and I didn’t have anything to believe in, and I didn’t have a purpose, but today I am not in that same boat. Today, I live with purpose and I actually now use the hard lessons that I’ve had in life, with Jame’s loss, raising my son, other grief and losses that I’ve struggled with, and now I’ve turned that into my motivation and my passion and my purpose in life, and so I do a lot of work now to help other people in their healing journey. “Is there a memory or message or part of the story that you want to make sure is absolutely included” WLMN Interview Questions, (5:52, R. Davey). Well, when James was first murdered and I first heard about it, I went to Edmonton, I wasn’t living in Edmonton at the time, and there was just a lot of negativity I guess surrounding his death, there wasn’t a whole lot being done, police weren’t searching for who did it, there was a newspaper news story, basically saying “another homeless man, Native homeless man found dead” and that was it, kinda swept under the carpet, nobody cared. And then I went into Edmonton and I had to actively pressure the police into searching for his murderers and, and it was a challenge. I had to speak with Edmonton police services and I went through all the chains of command and I was upset and I went to the crime scene and still saw all of his blood all over the concrete, and that upset me too so I remember contacting the city of Edmonton and just being upset because why haven’t they cleaned it up yet I thought if it was more of a prominent area in Edmonton like Whyte ave or Jasper ave it definitely would have been cleaned up. But because it was kind of in the inner-city of Edmonton, it was still there after days and they hadn’t been searching from what I could gather, as far as who did it, and I remember explaining, you know, to the detective, “well there was broken bottles, there was broken concrete” and I remember just kinda saying, “well I’m not a detective but it looks pretty obvious as to what happened here.” And then the next day when I contacted them again asking for answers, suddenly that was the story, was that there was a fight that ensued and he was basically beaten by two other individuals all in a drunken fight, drunken rage, they were all known to each other, other homeless guys, and they basically beat him to death and he didn’t have an opportunity to fight back from what the medical examiner told me, but it was a very, it was an ugly scene, an ugly death, like his whole face had to be reconstructed for the funeral. One of the things that really stood out to be about that, the lack of attempting to find the perpetrators, was that regardless whether James was homeless, whether he was drinking at the time, he was still my son’s father and I still loved him. He struggled a lot with addictions, and at that time there wasn’t a lot of help for people with addictions, and so one of the things that really I had to let the world know was that he was loved and he did have family, and I wasn’t with him because I didn’t want to be with him, I was with him because for safety reasons, for myself and my children, because of what he did when he got drunk, and the rages he would go into, so I had to protect myself and my children. And I remember reading letters from jail from him, and you know how much he loved me, how much he loved our son, how happy he was in the time that he had with us, and one of the things he said was that if he didn’t live good with us, the times that we did live good he wouldn’t have known what love and what living good like that felt like, and so he was always very grateful and he did try to go to treatment several times, he went to AA meetings a lot, but a lot of it was because I was pressuring him into doing it, I was threatening to leave him so, I don’t feel like he was really doing it for myself, and I think that’s probably why he wasn’t successful no matter how many times he went, so there was definitely a lot of healing for me that I had to work through after his death, like all the shame, guilt, shoulda-coulda-woulda’s, if only I did something different. Ultimately at the end of the day, I know I made the right choice for my children’s sake and for my own sake. Its just unfortunate that that is the way it turned out. But yeah, just to remember that he was a good person and a lot of people that do struggle with addictions you know, like Doctor Gabor Mate says, It’s not what’s wrong with somebody but, “its not asking what’s wrong with somebody but asking what happened to somebody”, and we begin to understand why they are the way they are. “What do you hope this project will help people understand” WLMN Interview Questions, (11:38, R. Davey). I think that empathy piece is the biggest thing, and also just understanding that, yeah well on the surface we might see the problems, we might see the trouble, we might see the addictions, we might see the violence, we might see all these things, but underneath all of that is somebody that is loved, somebody that has a mom, has a dad, somebody that has a family that cares about them, somebody that has children, children that are left to go on in life without a parent, and yeah so I guess just maybe humanizing people that have been murdered and missing and understanding that they do have people that love them. And the people that love them are left to continue on in this world with that void within them, and that void never really goes away. But through a lot of hard work and healing, they can live a little bit of a better life and come to terms with it and have a little bit of peace, peace and serenity in their lives eventually, but not without going through the devastation of grief an loss, and that huge piece of loss and hurt that people go through after experiencing such a traumatic or devastating loss. I think one of the things that I really would just kind of like to say is that as Indigenous people, we have struggled through a lot of grief and loss and trauma historically, and I think that with awareness campaigns like this and people that are helping to tell our storys and share our stories, we can then start focusing on our strength and resilience, and start gravitating more towards the beauty and strength in our culture that has been carried on and passed onto us, nit just the intergenerational trauma we talk about or trauma, but also just highlighting our strength and resilience as Indigenous people so that we can create a better life for the seven generations ahead of us and just start working on healing together as a whole.

Okay so my brother, Billy Jay Sharpehead, he is from the Enoch Cree Nation, he disappeared in September of 2003, he was walking down a dirt road in Enoch, and he was last seen by his father-in-law. And from what we were told by the RCMP, my brother had been in an argument with someone, and he was despondent, so he left, and that was the last time that we saw him. “What was like as a person, such as his goals, passions and connections to culture and community?” WLMN Interview Questions (4:16, H. Williams) My brother Jay he was a person with a heart of gold. He loved women very much, my mother and myself, he really held us in high regard. He was a dancer, a singer, a drummer, an artist, he was a very creative person, he’s very much like the rest of our family, we have a lot of musicians and artists, and performers, so that was something that he sort of gravitated to. He would always draw, he loved to sketch eagles, and funny enough we put an eagle on our ribbon skirts when we had a ceremony for him, basically for my mom, so what I said was when we do the ribbon skirts we’ll put an eagle on there and that will represent my brother, because he is free now; he is free from the pain of his life, and he’s flying free in the sky. So we had that put on the skirts as signifying that part of his life and his journey. “Is there anything you want others in society to understand about your bother, or about other stories similar to his?” WLMN Interview Question, (5:26, H. Williams) My brother, he came from a family with a lot of trauma. Our mother is a residential school survivor, my father, it was difficult for him as well. Growing up, there was a lot of poverty amongst our Nation, so he didn’t have the best start throughout life and I think part of that trauma that our parents suffered definitely came onto all of us, so it was very hard for him to navigate life. There weren’t a lot of supports for us when we were growing up and going through the things we went through, so he sort of got lost in that and he ended up in prison a lot. Being institutionalized, it was hard for him when he did come out of the institution to try to live amongst society, he didn’t have a lot of supports when he was in prison and when he came out he didn’t hve a lot either, so he kind of just “flopped around”, if you will, and tried to figure out things but for him, it was definitely more hard because being a man, like growing up my dad always said to my fathers, “be a man, be strong, be tough” but they needed that help, the men need that help as well too, right. It was more available for me, like it felt like I had more opportunities to get that, but my dad would say to my brothers, “Be a man, be tough, you don’t need that kind of stuff”, and that’s not true, our men are human beings just like we are. And to not have that support throughout his life, it really, it was really devastating to him and that’s why I feel like he went in that direction. You know, I think, there should be more of that, especially for our men, because there are actually a lot more missing and murdered Indigenous men out there than there are women, people just don’t know that. “In your perspective, what does ‘healing’ and ‘justice’ mean to you?” WLMN Interview Questions, (7:35, H. Williams) Healing for me, it means coming to these sorts of things, these gatherings where we can meet with families and share our trauma, and talk about all of the different aspects of their loved one and how they disappeared, what their life was like, and that’s just the common goal, is a lot of the residential schools stuff and 60s stuff. So in that learning and talking with people, we form this bond, if you will, and it’s like healing to us because they can understand how we feel and we can lend support to each other. Justice, more help. More help for families, for discoverment, to really take a look at what this all means. Our people are far more, it’s more dangerous for us, and they just don’t see that, and I feel like they should get down to speaking to us, the people who are the families of it, and really listen to what we are saying and telling that we need more supports. We need more supports for our men, our women, our communities, all of that stuff. “How was culture and community a part of his life?” WLMN Interview Questions, (9:08, H. Williams) Culture, from my mom’s family she’s from Mistawasis, so my brother took a lot of that from being over there, we went back there for ceremony a lot of the times. When he was institutionalized, he also had the opportunity to enjoy that. When he was in prison, he actually made his own grass dance outfit, and that was like, to him, it was part of his healing he said, to create that and to teach himself how to dance. Towards the end of his life he was really starting to appreciate our culture more, and it was starting to strengthen him. He said, “I feel like I can start to live”, I think that’s what he said about it, but he said “I feel like I’m starting to live now” because he had designed his own regalia, he was singing, and he was drumming and all that stuff, he was sketching more and he said, “you know what sis, I feel like I can get it together” is one of the last things he said to me, and that to me was beautiful, that’s part of our culture. Reminding us that, you know, we are connected to the earth and mother earth will always take care of us. That was a really beautiful thing that he told me towards the end, before he disappeared. For me and my family, it’s been a struggle, you know. It’s the uncertainty, and not knowing what happened to him is the most hurtful thing of this whole journey that we’ve been on, because you spend your life sitting there wondering, like when I’m driving in my car and I drive by somebody that’s walking on the street and that if that person kind of looks like my brother it automatically stops my heart, and I think, “is that my brother? Is that my brother?” and actually on one occasion, I did drive by somebody, and I thought he looked like my brother, so I turned around and went to go drive by him again, but it wasn’t him, but just stuff like that where you’re wondering, right? And then in the news if you hear, “oh, remains were found”, I’m automatically on the phone calling whatever detachment it is, “hey listen, I am just calling in to find out is it a male, female, like it’s always that thing that I am constantly doing, and looking out for my brother. I continue to search, even though we had a funeral service for him, I continue to do work on my computer. I’m not able to physically go out there anymore, but I still do that kind of work, I email with a number of Facebook groups, Facebook is fantastic by the way when sharing information. I go on TikTok, I go on Instagram, I go on snapchat, I go on all the platforms and there are a lot of great people out there that continue to help me and sadly, they’re strangers. But if the people around us could help, that would be, you know, we would appreciate that more. “Is there anything else you’d like to share about your brother or his story?” WLMN Interview Questions, (12:37, H. Williams) Just that my brother mattered. He was, he was a great person; he loved life, he loved his family, whether that was someone close or like a second or third cousin, that was the most important thing to my brother was that sense of family. And I think in prison, when he was in there, that’s what he was really missing was that connection to his family. That was one thing that he really loved. He loved his community, he loved our family, I just wish he loved himself a little bit more, perhaps that you know, the terrible things wouldn’t have happened but, again growing up in that kind of environment if was hard to try to have that attitude and outlook towards life but, I just want people to know that he’s never forgotten, he’s always loved, and he’s always in our heart.

My name is Jenny Waquan, and my story is one of grief, loss, resilience, and healing. I was taken into foster care when I was just four years old. Being separated from my family at such a young age left me disconnected from my loved ones, my culture, and my identity. As a child, I often felt lost and struggled to understand where I belonged. When I was 14 years old, my mother, Shirley Waquan, went missing. Even though we had been separated by the foster care system for many years, she was still my mother, and her disappearance had a profound impact on my life. I carried so many unanswered questions, so much sadness, and so much grief. Not knowing what happened to her left a wound that followed me for many years. Like many people who experience trauma and loss, I struggled to cope with the pain. I carried grief that I didn't know how to express and hurt that I didn't know how to heal. Eventually, I found myself battling addiction as I tried to numb the pain I had been carrying since childhood. My addiction led me down a difficult path and ultimately resulted in me losing my own children. That loss was devastating and forced me to take a hard look at my life. I knew I needed to make a change—not only for myself, but for my children, my family, and the generations to come. Choosing to attend treatment was one of the most important decisions I have ever made. It marked the beginning of my healing journey. Through treatment, I began facing the trauma, grief, and loss that I had carried for so many years. One of the biggest parts of my healing came through reconnecting with my culture and participating in ceremonies. I also built a strong support network of family and friends who stood beside me throughout my journey. They listened, encouraged me, and helped me cope as I continued raising awareness for my mom. Their love and support gave me the strength to keep moving forward and to continue growing, healing, and sharing this journey with my children. I found a safe place to speak about my experiences and begin healing the wounds that had shaped so much of my life. For the first time, I felt truly connected—to my culture, my community, and myself. Through that process, I learned that healing is possible. I learned that our stories do not have to end with trauma. We can acknowledge our pain, honour our losses, and still move forward with hope. Today, I continue to walk my healing journey and use my story to inspire others. I share my experiences because I know there are people who feel lost, disconnected, or hopeless, just as I once did. I want them to know they are not alone. My mother's disappearance changed my life forever, but it does not define who I am. My story is not only about grief and loss—it is also about strength, healing, culture, and hope. If there is one message I want others to hear, it is this: No matter what you have been through, healing is possible. There is hope. There is support. And there is always a path forward.

So, I am here to represent my niece and honor my niece, her name is Teresa Sara Katcheech. She was murdered a few months back, in 2026 here in Edmonton. And burned. She was found in a house burned, basically beyond recognition. She was born April 23rd, 1986, here in Edmonton, to my brother Wayne Kacheech and her mom, her mom’s name is Gina Scivoletto. She was a mother of three, a sibling, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, she was loved very much by the whole family. As a child she was always involved in stuff like, uh, she liked bowling, dancing, swimming, she loved her grandparents very much as well. Around the age of 15 she got into the, hanging around with the wrong crowd and she ended up on the streets of Edmonton. When she passed away, she was 39, she had spent most of those years on the streets. She, at the time when it happened, it happened just off of 95th street in the little Italy area. Her grandfather was Salvitore Scivoletto, so she kind of grew up in the little Italy area all her life, that’s where she hung out all her life. She was addicted to drugs, substances, she struggled with that lots. She moved to NWT with her mother, however the addiction to the substance was becoming increasingly difficult to overcome, even in NWT at one point in her life. Eventually she found herself back here in Edmonton, in the inner city. She moved to Saskatchewan for a while to live with her family on her dad’s side. After almost 20 years of living in and out of Edmonton, and also in the inner city of Edmonton, she was found in the McCauley Boyle street area, basically around the little Italy area. She was murdered and burned. And at this point in time, the investigation is still ongoing. We have heard rumors that the police are onto something, but of course they can’t tell us anything until they get concrete evidence apparently, so. Her murder take place on February 9th, 2026, at a house on 93rd street and 105th ave. She was laid to rest beside her grandmother on her dad’s side, in Kelliher, Saskatchewan. Yeah, I was her only family here in town on her dad’s side, the rest of the family all live in Saskatchewan. She had no family on her dad’s side that lived here, during that time that it happened. I would go down there periodically and find her, just to see how she is doing, I’d give her a few bucks here and there. I would pick her up when our reserve used to come to Edmonton at Christmas time and hold the big dinners, I would go pick her up and bring her to the dinners and made sure she was taken care of that way. I would go look up on her, I would keep an eye on her once and a while for her dad. I would say, me and my daughter, Jayden, were probably the last ones that’s seen her before all that happened, and it was pretty painful, you know. I remember her as a child, she was a baby I used to take care of her lots. That was my little baby, I kinda protected her a lots back in the day. I was a young guy myself too, so, and in the end I was the last one to basically see her in the family, so, it was a very disturbing thing to hear happen to your, uh, I don’t care where people come from in this life, I don’t care what they do in this life, nobody deserve to die like that, so. Yeah, that’s about all I have to say about her, she was very loved by the whole family and she’s missed, she’s missed dearly by the whole family. And another thing too, she’s got three children, a little girl and two boys that have to live the rest of their life without a parent, so that’s kind of a sad thing for those children as well. It’s a shame that them children have to live a life by themselves now and not have a mother or a father in their life. They actually live with family, and it’s a good thing that they are instead of having to live in the system. Yeah, that’s the story of my niece who I loved very much. “With events like this and getting to share your niece’s story, what’s one of the main takeaways you want society to take from this?” – WLMN Interview Question (10:50, H. Williams) Well, the thing I noticed during the time this happened here, a lot of bad comments were coming on online, a lot of people were making comments that “she had it coming,” “she deserved it,” you know the life she lived. I don’t think people realize that this could happen to their own child, you know. You should never look down on anybody like that, unless you’re helping them up. And I don’t care what life they’re living, I don’t care if they have all the money in the world; it can happen to their own children, that easy. Because my niece lived that lifestyle, she didn’t deserve to die that way, and she didn’t deserve to have people treating her and talking about her that way. The one thing I think everybody should learn and should realize in this life is, it can happen to you.