Kyla Wapass (R), a mental health therapist with the North West Friendship Centre, smudges participants outside Northwest College’s Meadow Lake campus before the start of the Red Dress Day remembrance walk on May 5, 2025. The event honoured missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. (Kenneth Cheung/ meadowlakeNOW staff)

By Kenneth Cheung

MMIWG2S+

‘We do matter’: Meadow Lake marks Red Dress Day with stories of loss and resilience

May 5, 2025 | 5:14 PM

The Northwest Friendship Centre and Northwest College (NWC) held a remembrance walk Monday in Meadow Lake to mark National Red Dress Day and honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S+).

Each step taken reflected the sorrow and hope of families still searching for answers.

Among those in attendance was Kyla Wapass, a mental health therapist with the Friendship Centre and a member of Thunderchild First Nation, who lost her first cousin years ago.

“She got murdered and got buried,” Wapass said.

Her cousin, Maxine Wapass, disappeared in Saskatoon over the May long weekend in 2002. Her body was discovered months later in a shallow grave near Asquith, roughly 16 kilometres west of the city.

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“She was buried halfway into the ground, and we couldn’t find her for a few months,” Wapass said. “And you know the killers or whoever did this, there should be justice, right? And it just seems like there’s none.”

According to Aboriginal Alert, 1,324 missing alerts for Indigenous people were issued in 2024, with more than 200 cases each in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, and Ontario. While Manitoba had the most alerts overall, Saskatchewan and Ontario have the highest number of active cases.

The Assembly of First Nations notes that Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women, despite accounting for just 4.3 per cent of Canada’s population.

Some young participants of the walk hold a sign to show support. (Kenneth Cheung/ meadowlakeNOW staff)

“It’s a real situation for us as an Indigenous woman,” she said. “But at the same time we have to honor those that have gone on, right? Our daughters, our aunties, our mothers, just disappearing and we not knowing,” Wapass said.

This year’s walk was organized by Garrett Wapass, the Friendship Centre’s family violence prevention coordinator. He said Northwest College initiated the partnership, adding that student services coordinator Amanda Hunkins “played a big part in this. ”

As a two-spirit Indigenous person, Garrett said the event was both personal and political, aimed at remembrance and raising awareness of systemic issues.

“I’ve experienced the intersectionality of being two-spirited, being Indigenous, being male and having grandparents that grew up in the residential school system and being personally affected by trauma,” Garrett said.

“So, it’s important to me because…it’s not a day just for Indigenous, it brings awareness and educates non-Indigenous people about these issues.”

During the walk. (Kenneth Cheung/ meadowlakeNOW staff)

Also taking part in the walk was Trenton Fiddler, a traditional singer from Waterhen Lake First Nation, who shared songs to honour the lives lost and support healing.

“Healing from the trauma of residential schools, healing from the trauma of losing our loved ones, healing from the trauma of… never getting closure on the missing and murdered Indigenous woman,” he said.

Fiddler said his family has also lived without answers.

“There’s several of my family members that are still missing. There’s a man named Rocky Fiddler. They still haven’t found them,” he said. “A lot of people that I’ve known in the past have gone missing. I remember seeing that person, talking to the person and then all of a sudden, I hear the person is missing.”

According to the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police, Rocky,14, was reported missing in March 1975 when he didn’t return home. He was last seen that July at a powwow at Thunderchild First Nation. The investigation remains open.

Fiddler believes law enforcement must do more, including reopening unsolved cases.

When asked “Why is the reality the way it is?” Wapass said that the roots of the violence lie in intergenerational trauma, systemic racism and colonial policies that continue to impact Indigenous lives.

“Our men got very broken in residential schools…so did our women,” she said. “Even today, we can’t even… talk about—there’s still so much pain and so much hurt there.”

She added that addiction, disconnection and low self-worth leave many women vulnerable.

“We just lose ourselves and we throw ourselves away and we don’t care,” she said. “It’s that mindset of ‘Nobody cares about me anyway, right’? And so we use alcohol and we use drugs and now it’s meth, right? An easy fix to just get rid of the physical part and it’s just awful.”

Despite the pain, Red Dress Day is not only about grief—it is about honouring life, visibility and survival.

“We do matter,” Wapass said. “We’re living human beings, we are providers, and our gift is to bring life into the world, right? And so we do matter, and we should be honored all the time.”

The walk also included a “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” segment, where male participants wore high heels to help raise awareness about gender-based violence.

– With file from 650 CKOM –

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com