Honouring Sisters in Spirit: Walking for Justice and Remembrance
Every year on October 4, communities across Canada come together to honour and remember the lives of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people who have gone missing or been murdered. This day, known as Sisters in Spirit Day, is both a solemn commemoration and a call to action. It is a time to remember lives lost, support families who continue to search for answers, and shine a light on the systemic injustices that allow this violence to persist.
Why Sisters in Spirit Matters
The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) is not only a national tragedy, it is a human rights crisis. Indigenous women and girls in Canada face violence at a rate nearly 12 times higher than non-Indigenous women. Behind those numbers are names, families, and communities who grieve every day.
Learning about Sisters in Spirit matters because it asks us to confront painful truths: that racism, sexism, colonialism, and neglect from institutions create conditions where Indigenous women and girls are more vulnerable to violence and more often denied justice.
How This Issue Is Unique — and How It Connects
Sisters in Spirit is distinct from other Indigenous justice issues because it focuses specifically on violence and safety. It is not only about poverty, housing, or education, though these are all connected. It is about lives cut short, cases mishandled, and families silenced.
At the same time, the crisis cannot be separated from broader Indigenous struggles. The same colonial systems that took children to residential schools, imposed poverty through land theft, and denied cultural survival also underpin today’s failures in policing, child welfare, and health care. Sisters in Spirit ties together all of these struggles by making visible their most heartbreaking consequences.
The Sisters in Spirit Walk at VIU
This year, our community will honour Sisters in Spirit on Thursday, October 2 at 1pm with a walk beginning and ending at Kwulasulwut Garden. The path will take us through the Tamagawa Garden and back, a circle of reflection and remembrance. Along the way, participants will observe 14 red dresses, each suspended among the trees.
Each dress honours a woman who has gone missing or been murdered. Alongside each, we share one of the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. These calls are not just recommendations — they are urgent demands for change, rooted in the voices of survivors, families, and communities.
By pairing a dress, a name, and a Call for Justice, the walk invites us to see the human lives behind policy and statistics. At each stop, participants are encouraged to pause, reflect, and consider: What does justice look like? What action is required from each of us?
Why We Walk
The purpose of the Sisters in Spirit Walk is threefold:
Remembrance: to honour the lives of those taken too soon.
Education: to learn about the Calls for Justice and the systems that must change.
Commitment: to show that we, as a community, care and will not forget.
The dresses move in the wind as haunting symbols of presence and absence. They remind us that every woman and girl represented here had dreams, families, laughter, and love — and that their stories matter.
Why These 14 Calls for Justice
While every Call for Justice matters, we could only select a few to highlight in this walk. The 14 we chose reflect three guiding priorities:
Education: Calls that connect directly to the role of schools, universities, and learning institutions in creating awareness and ending cycles of violence.
Community Needs: Calls that address deep-rooted issues in housing, health, policing, and safety that our communities continue to face daily.
Pathways for Action: Calls that show clear opportunities for individuals, organizations, and governments to make meaningful change.
By focusing on these 14, we honour the fullness of the Inquiry’s work while creating space for reflection that is manageable within a single walk. We carry these selected Calls knowing they are tied to the lived realities of our community, our campus, and our responsibility to take action.
Walking Together in a Circle
As we walk together through the gardens, we carry their memory forward. We carry the voices of families who have fought for decades for justice, and we carry the responsibility to not only remember but to act — to ensure that no more sisters are lost to violence, neglect, or indifference.
The walk begins and ends at Kwulasulwut Garden, forming a complete circle. In many Indigenous teachings, the circle is a symbol of life, unity, and connection. It has no beginning and no end, reminding us that everything is interconnected — past, present, and future; land, people, and spirit.
By walking in a circle, we honour the women and girls who should still be walking with us. Sisters in Spirit is not only about looking back at what has been lost. It is also about looking forward: toward a future where Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people can live in safety, dignity, and joy. We commit ourselves to the ongoing work of justice: not as a straight line with an end point, but as a continuous journey we must walk together.
Resources:
Native Women’s Association of Canada MMIWG Calls for Justice
Government of Canada Missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people services and supports page