Article by the Salish Sea Sentinel. June 2019.
Tla’amin member Ta’Kaiya Blaney was lifted inside of a canoe and walked along Vancouver’s waterfront during a women’s honouring ceremony that coincided with the end of Canada’s MMIWG inquiry.
A group of men carried Blaney, who sang a song that she composed in honour of her late mother Anne Blaney and late sister Marca Dawn Smith as a procession of people surrounded her.
“This song was composed for my mother and for my big sister, who passed recently,” Blaney said.
“When I bring it forward, I sing it in dedication for missing and murdered women, I sing it for my aunt Rose, and I sing it for all of our community members. We deserve life.”
The event on June 3 coincided with the release of the final report around Canada’s inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
