'It feels good': Mural in Whitehorse will honour 2 homicide victims

Young painters in Whitehorse are busy working on a tribute to two Yukon women whose murders remain unsolved.

Angel Carlick was 19 when she was found dead in 2007. In April of this year her mother, Wendy Carlick, was murdered in Whitehorse. 

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Young people with Yukon's Youth of Today Society (InnerVibe Community Centre) are now painting two portraits on the wall of the Staples store at the corner of Ogilvie Street and Third Avenue in Whitehorse.

They're framed by red eagles designed by Tlingit carver Calvin Morberg. 

One of the painters is 17-year-old Josiah Jakesta from Watson Lake, who's a relative of the two women.

"We're doing a memorial for them, it feels good," Jakesta says.  

"We get the community to help, people to volunteer if they want to. I think it's going to be remembered. I think all our hard work is going to pay off." 

Angel Carlick painted murals 

Artist Lancelot Burton is guiding the painters. Burton has been a creative vision and painter for many murals in Whitehorse.

He says this one is especially poignant because Angel Carlick used to paint murals with the youth centre.

Burton remembers she helped complete works of art in the Riverdale neighbourhood and downtown Whitehorse over several years.

"She was part of our project, probably 12 years ago, just before her death. And recently her mother just passed, so the idea was to put the two together. It's to commemorate Angel and also missing and murdered women across Canada," he says.

"In essence we are hoping the creator will see our prayer, of some sorts, and find justice for the missing and murdered."

'Healing effect' 

The paint and supplies for the mural were paid for through a grant from the Yukon Government's crime prevention and victim services trust fund.

Ali Khoda is one of the young people who helped design the mural. 

"I hope it has some sort of healing effect because that's usually what I expect from art. It's a healing act and I want to share that gift with people," he says.   

"It's going to be here for a long time."