Commemoration event held for the At the Heart mural

The Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre At the Heart Mural is finished.

A commemoration event was held outside of its Smithers office on Second Avenue on Thursday (Sept 2) to showcase the mural to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The mural was a family led project with families that have advocated for their loved ones that have either gone missing or have been murdered.

The event featured speeches from project coordinators and families who were involved with the project.

Ramona Wilson’s sister, Brenda Wilson spoke at the event pleading for the community to continue advocating for MMIWG.

“Remember why you’re doing this. It’s about the families and what they need, it’s about supporting our families,” she said.

“Every day we wake up missing our loved ones,everyday we lose sleep because we can’t bear the hurt and we have so many things going through our minds like what happened to them or where they are,” Wilson added.

She also said she is grateful for the mural but has concerns.

“I still have a lot of concerns in regards to MMIW and how our families are being supported and all I can say is we’ll continue to do what we need to do to ensure families are taken care of,” Wilson said.

Executive Director for Carrier Sekani Family Services, Mary Teegee was also in attendance at the event.

Teegee said that MMIWG is not in the past and people are still going missing or being murdered,

“Installations like this, the mural, it reminds us what we’ve lost and it reminds every Canadian citizen that we still have an issue that we need to deal with and we still need to deal with that, in a good way together,” she said.

Additionally, the family of Jessica Patrick also spoke about the mural.

Patrick’s cousin, Jackie Bowes said every time Patrick’s daughter walks down Main Street she will remember her mother in a beautiful way.

Bowes added the family still has not heard an update regarding the investigation.

Funding for the mural was provided by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls commemoration fund.