Long-time Battlefords advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Krista Fox headed out Thursday evening to embark on her Krista’s Kilometres for MMIW walk across Canada to raise awareness of the national tragedy.
Before leaving, she joined a group of supporters for a prayer and to sing the Women’s Warrior Song.
Fox will document her journey, officially starting in Victoria, B.C. on Feb. 18 and wrapping up 10 months later in St. John’s, Newfoundland, through her site on TikTok where she has over 5,000 followers. If anyone wishes to join her on the walk they can do so in person along the way, or virtually through the social media platform. People can also follow her progress on Facebook.
The North Battleford woman said she is feeling both anxious and excited about finally getting ready to start the event after a year of preparations.
“We got to do what we got to do,” she told battlefordsNOW. “This has blown up bigger than I ever expected it to. We have people trying to work to get us into the Parliament buildings [for talks], people all across the country.”
Fox will be joined by Diane Morin, the mother of Ashley Morin of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, who has been missing from North Battleford since July 10, 2018, as well as Lindsey, the sister of Saskatoon woman Megan Gallagher who has been missing since Sept. 2020.
Highway of Tears
In the next few days before the cross-country walk starts, Fox and Diane Morin will first drive to meet supporters in Prince George, B.C., on the corridor of Highway 16 known as the Highway of Tears, where a high number of Indigenous women have gone missing or been found murdered over the past 50 years.
Fox will spend Saturday walking the Highway of Tears towards Prince Rupert until it gets dark.
From there she will go to Smithers, B.C., half-way between Prince George and Prince Rupert, where she will meet another gathering of supporters. Then, she will visit the MMIW totem pole memorial near Terrace, B.C.
From there they will travel to Vancouver to meet the family of Chelsea Poorman, who disappeared in 2020.
“We are going there to support Chelsea’s family,” Fox said, adding that’s also where they will meet Megan Gallagher’s sister Lindsey who will join them for the big journey.
Leaving from Victoria
On Feb. 18, marking Fox’s 54th birthday, Fox will travel to Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, B.C., to officially start the cross-Canada MMIW walk.
“I think it’s time that people start realizing that things need to start getting done,” Fox said. “Our girls, boys, men, aunties, kôhkoms whatever, still continue to go missing. I think we need to get those people who are sitting at those tables making decisions for us to wake up.”
The walk will also take her through the Battlefords area in late May or early June.
Fox said the only thing she thought she could do to take action for the cause of MMIW was to get up and walk across Canada.
“The support came through; it absolutely did,” she said. “I want these people sitting down at these tables to realize we are not going away. This is an uproar. We are done being quiet, and we have to do something.”
On her Facebook page on Jan. 1 Fox wrote “Today and Always I Will Honour You,” dedicated to more than 50 Indigenous women and girls reported missing or murdered.
In addition to missing women Ashley Morin and Megan Gallagher, among some of the many women reported missing or murdered are Tiki Laverdiere whose remains were found outside North Battleford in July 2019, Corrine Moosomin who has been missing from Saulteaux First Nation since 1986, Tamra Keepness who went missing from Regina in July 2004, Cindy Gladue who was found dead in Edmonton in June 2011, Happy Charles who disappeared from the Prince Albert area in April 2017, Tina Fontaine who was found dead in Red River in Winnipeg in Aug. 2014 and Courtney Johnstone, who was murdered in Grande Prairie in 2014.
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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com
On Twitter: @battlefordsnow
