Full Moon Memory Walk
Sandra Johnson was a fancy shawl dancer, a drummer in a local band, a sister, aunt, daughter, and friend.
On February 13, 1992, eighteen-year-old Sandra was found murdered.
Twenty-nine years later, the family still does not know who was responsible for ending Sandra’s life.
To make sure no one forgets what happened to Sandra and to show others grieving the loss of a daughter, sister, aunt, mother, or friend that they are not alone, Sandra’s sister Sharon Johnson has been organizing the Full Moon Memory Walk for more than 15 years.
This year, Sharon did not let the COVID-19 pandemic stop the Walk.
On Sunday, February 14, the ceremony was held virtually on Facebook. Although the event was virtual, participants were asked to participate by taking a selfie of their own Walk and sharing it on the Facebook event page with the hashtag #WEWALKFORMMIWGMB (missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, men, and boys).
I was surprised by how touching this online event was, considering how Zoom-fatigued we all are. This success was thanks to the women who organized and executed the ceremony with as much passion and love as if it had been held in person.
One of the most powerful parts of the ceremony for me was the poem Sharon read, a poem she had written about her sister. For many people, particularly non-Indigenous people, our familiarity with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is mainly through news and media reporting that largely focus on statistics. But hearing from Sharon and others like her who have lost someone close to them transforms cold, impersonal, inhuman numbers into beautiful, loving, loved individual women and girls.
The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls contains calls to action, many of which are directed at the government level, but every one of us has a role and responsibility to end violence against Indigenous women and girls and to ensure their human rights are respected, such as to:
Become a strong ally, which means actively working to break down barriers and to support others in every relationship and encounter in which you participate;
Create time and space for relationships based on respect as human beings, supporting and embracing differences with kindness, love, and respect.
I am ashamed to admit that for most of my life, I was ignorant of the fact that women and girls in this country, in my own community, were experiencing this kind of violence.
Now I know.
Now I recognize my role and responsibility to replace apathy with action and to be a strong ally to fight violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.
