Nuu-chah-nulth to hold gathering for families of missing, murdered women and girls
'It will be good, families have been waiting a long time,' says Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council's Debra Foxcroft
The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council will host a gathering for families members of murdered and missing women and girls later this month in Port Alberni, B.C., to focus on healing and sharing.
"Some of our families have been waiting for a long time," said Debra Foxcroft, president of the tribal council, which represents 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations on Vancouver Island.
"It will be very positive for the families to just let go, have some traditional healing."
Foxcroft says the gathering will begin with traditional healing ceremonies and will include events to uplift the families and provide a space for them to share their stories.
The three-day event, running from Sept. 12-14, will also be attended by representatives from the legal team of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Leaders from the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council says the plans for its own gathering came about after families from its communities attended a special ceremony in Prince George, B.C. in early 2016.
More than a dozen Nuu-chah-nulth families were there, among the hundreds of others who came to grieve and heal.
"One of the recommendations [from families] is that they wanted to have their own healing gathering in our Nuu-chah-nulth territory," said Foxcroft.
"Because it was a huge gathering and people wanted a safe place, a place where they would have our own Nuu-chah-nulth traditional ceremonies and healing."
Honouring loved ones
Lillian Howard attended the Prince George gathering with her brother Harvey and his partner. She said it helped with the healing process within her own family.
Howard is a member of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation and lives in Vancouver, where she is an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
She says she's encouraged to know there's a Nuu-chah-nulth gathering taking place.
"It's amazing how families can suppress it and you know, just go in automatic motions going through life. And wondering what's wrong in their lives and really not knowing," she said.
"And once it's open, it just allows for that healing to begin and you start filling those holes with joy and love and friends and family. So I saw that happen in Prince George."
Howard says she's lost three family members to violence, including two aunts, and has personally survived sexual violence.
"So it's pretty close to home for me," she said, adding that there are many layers of historical trauma in her family. Howard is a fourth-generation residential school survivor.
For all those years, over 30 years, we just didn't talk about it.- Lillian Howard
Her aunts, Christine Thomas and Helena Howard were killed in the summer of 1979. Christine was 26 at the time, while Helena was 16.
Lillian said the sisters wanted to surprise their family in Gold River, to tell them they were planning to move back home. They had made it to Campbell River from Southern Vancouver Island and just needed to make the final stretch home to Gold River.
Lillian said people from Gold River often drive the route, and would pick people up and take them home. But on that day, when Christine and Helena were hitchhiking, they were picked up by a stranger and killed.
Howard says for much of her family, the healing around her aunts' deaths only really began in the last couple years.
"For all those years, over 30 years, we just didn't talk about it," she said.
"Both of them were really alive and vibrant," she said. "They were both really beautiful. They both had such beautiful long hair and the biggest smiles and they're were just really gentle. Both of them were really gentle souls."
While she's not sure if she'll be able to attend the gathering in Port Alberni, Howard said she thinks it will be a comfortable environment for many Nuu-chah-nulth people since it's so close to home.
Inquiry legal team to attend
Debra Foxcroft said she hopes the gathering will provide a safe space for families to connect with the national inquiry staff, if they choose to do so.
The inquiry is an entirely separate process from the Nuu-chah-nulth gathering but Foxcroft said two members of the inquiry's legal team have agreed to attend.
"In terms of the bigger picture and the inquiry I know that there has been a lot of concern about the process," she said about the inquiry.
"I think part of it was how the stories were being heard, how the families were being respected. And some of those systems that are in place through the inquiry are foreign to our people."
Foxcroft said having the inquiry legal team on-site will allow them to collect statements from families, who wish to share with them.