Missing, murdered indigenous women's families grieve at special ceremony

With hundreds of indigenous girls and women murdered or missing across Canada, the families of victims in B.C. held a mourning ceremony in Prince George.

The B.C government invited family members of victims to a three-day, private gathering there this week, which was held not far from the Highway of Tears where 18 girls or women have been murdered or gone missing. 

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• Five things the public inquiry for murdered or missing indigenous women should consider

As part of a mourning ceremony at the gathering, each family who'd lost a loved one sent one person to sit on the stage.

"The stage was filled to over capacity," said Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Chief Terry Teegee, who's lost two family members. "Too many of our sisters are gone." 

Families broken by grief

Lilllian Howard travelled from Vancouver Island to attend the gathering. She lost her two young aunts, Helena and Christine Howard, to violence more than 30 years ago.

"People don't deal with it," said Howard. "They grieve for a little while and then they put it on hold. We were a large, large family, and that just broke the family apart. I'm here to go through the healing process with other families."

"We should not be targets," said Howard. "We're mothers and daughters and sisters ... this national inquiry that's coming up, we're ready for it." 

Teegee said it's emotional and powerful for the families of B.C.'s murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls to share their grief and find strength in each other.

"It is an historic day to see change for indigenous women in this province. I am a witness."