MMIWG ribbons tied back to trees in Calgary after being thrown away – Calgary | The Canadian News

After ribbons honoring missing and murdered indigenous women and girls were thrown in the trash earlier this week, a ceremony was held in Calgary on Saturday to place new ones on trees along Memorial Drive. .

People found the tapes in a garbage can on Tuesday. They were cleared from an area now used as the Field of Crosses, which honors veterans before Remembrance Day.

“In the indigenous community, there was a great reaction. There were a lot of triggers, trauma and sadness because it’s like someone dismissed us as worthless and threw us in the trash, “said advocate Deborah Green on Saturday.

The ribbons are sacred

They are sacred prayer ribbons, he said, and it is important that people see them and recognize the spirit of the victims.

“The red ribbons are a symbol of the MMIW movement, just as the spirits of our loved ones who have left the other side are on those ribbons, so we pray and have a ceremony recognizing and honoring the spirits of our loved ones in Those tapes, as well as the crosses, ”Green said.

Advocate Yvonne Henderson said the tapes remind “people that our women matter. The members of our family who have fallen before us are important. “There is a name and a life behind each tape.

“Truth and reconciliation does not seem to take something from indigenous peoples and just throw it away, and I hope that people, in general, understand it better,” he said.

“We would never disrespect tombstones. Veterans and these people who gave their lives have an unspoken respect. We would never disrespect that, and we only ask for the same. “

Reconciliation in the future

Following the tape removal incident, Green is pleased to report that his group has established a good relationship with the city and Susan Schalin, President of Field of Crosses.

“I am truly honored that Susan, who is the president, has recognized and taken responsibility that potentially some of her volunteers may have inadvertently, unknowingly done this, and that is acceptable,” she said.

“We just wanted accountability, conscience and an apology, and Susan has given it to us, and then we moved forward that we are going to work with the city so that we can also have a permit here for our tapes.”

Green said the city and Field of Crosses assured his group that the tapes will not be played.

“We hope to have some reconciliation talks after November 11 so that we can share this space,” he said.

Kent Griffiths, Communications Representative and Military Liaison for Campo de Cruces, said the organization is happy to see the tapes being put back “where they belong.”

“We are very supportive of the whole concept and we really feel bad about getting knocked down in the first place, so it’s good to see they are back. We will do everything possible to make sure no one touches them, ”he said.

“It’s a fantastic cause because it’s something we really need to focus on.”

Green said the location was chosen because the body parts of a victim were found on a nearby hill.

“The MMIW National Investigation, is titled Claiming Power and Place, so we come here to do that, ”he said.

“We reclaim our power as a valuable indigenous people and that we are no less than, and we reclaim the place in honor of that person who was found here.”

The location couldn’t be a better place to remember MMIWG, Griffiths said.

“The field of crosses is about remembering people so they are not forgotten and learning from our past,” he said.

“Those veterans who gave their lives led to freedom of expression that allows all of us to be aware of these problems. It is a place of memory and a place of shared memory. For just one week out of the year, we think of our veterans, but those red ribbons will be in the trees all year long to help perpetuate those memories as well. “