Feast in honour of Tina Fontaine will be held on 4th anniversary of her body's discovery

Four years to the day after Tina Fontaine's body was pulled from the Red River, her family is hosting a community feast to honour her and to heal.

Melissa Stevenson ran a children's group at the Indigenous Family Centre in Winnipeg, where she met Fontaine at the age of four.

She is helping the family put on the feast, which was the idea of four of Fontaine's cousins.

"Everything we do is in cycles of four to honour the four directions," Stevenson said, reading a family statement. 

"For the fourth year, it's time to usher in healing for our family and a feast brings community together so they can help you heal."

Stevenson, who is considered an aunt by members of the family, says the Fontaines have gathered each year at Tina's memorial site on the anniversary of the discovery of her death for prayers, drumming, smudging and sharing stories.

This year, they want to host a potluck feast for everyone at the Indigenous Family Centre on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

"We would like to celebrate a birthday rather than a memorial," she said.

After the feast, Fontaine's cousins will place wooden butterflies on the site, which is the former Alexander Docks.

The 15-year-old disappeared in early August 2014. Her body was found days later.

Her death has been mourned nationally and has renewed calls for a government inquiry into the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

A jury found Raymond Cormier not guilty of second-degree murder earlier this year in her death.