8th Annual Memorial March for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women

Tragedy of any kind is hard to deal with but especially when it’s the loss of a loved one. Tuesday was about honoring and bringing awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women with the 8th annual Duluth & Superior for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relative Awareness Day.

A big focus for the event & memorial march continues to help increase the visibility of missing and murdered woman and young girls and honor them. “It’s very important! Anytime we can bring awareness to the problem because Native women, this happens to all our native relatives, disproportionately men and women and children help educate the public,” said Shawn Carr, community organizer for Idle No More.

This is the first time that men, boys, and two-spirit are included in the memorial march. The event started with a ceremony at noon and a march in downtown Duluth. As the event is celebrated every year, it continues to shed light on and show support for this tragic issue as organizer member ReneAnn Goodrich mentioned.

“It’s important to include this issue into the work that you do every day because it intersects with so with a multitude of issues and correlates with so many other issues that are that are that indigenous communities and populations are disproportionately impacted by.”

Along with the march comes remembering and looking back at the tragedy that missing and murdered ingenious women have been through, and it brings people together to keep going and stand up for MMIW. “It is important to do this for future generations and to spread awareness for young people to know that there is this danger that exists in our community and to try and be proactive in preventing the conditions that cause. So many of our people go missing, and I think for the vitality and the future of the community, it’s important to keep raising awareness about this issue,” march participant Moira Villiard shared.

Currently, in the Twin Ports, roughly 40 women, men, young girls, and boys are missing.