Petal ceremony a reminder ‘to take care of each other’

Friends, family and survivors threw flower petals and tobacco into the Assiniboine River on Saturday to remember Indigenous women and girls who were murdered and are missing.

Around 50 people gathered on the grounds of the Riverbank Discovery Centre for the Sisters in Spirit petal ceremony, done to honour the lives and stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, or MMIWG.

“This is a ceremony that reminds us that there’s a need for closure. This is kind of a way of acknowledging that happened, and it’s still happening, and that we must not forget,” said Susie McPherson, one of the people who participated in the ceremony.

McPherson, who is originally from Churchill and now lives in Brandon, said throwing the multi-coloured petals into the river represents the lives of the women and girls lost too soon.

“It’s a remembrance, that these were somebody’s sister, mother, aunt, cousin, friend, relative. That’s really important to us.”

The event started with a smudging ceremony, a group singing a Women’s song, and a prayer.

The ceremony then shifted over to the bank of the river, where one by one people took flower petals and tobacco, said a prayer, and threw the tobacco and petals into the river, while other women sang and drummed a Travelling song.

“That flower represents each of those souls that are taken,” said Frank Tacan Sr., a spiritual leader.

Tacan officiated much of the ceremony, leading songs and the prayer. He said the flowers also hold symbolism in the way that men often given women flowers. The river’s water helps flow away the worries people have.

“In our way of life, this river, if you sit beside it, it will take your personal issues that you have within yourself or within the family, and it will take it away from you,” Tacan said.

He said the progress made in truth and reconciliation over the past 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report came out has been good, but more needs to be done.

“It’s happening, but it’s happening too slow,” Tacan said.

There are still too many people that believe residential schools are a hoax, he said, and those are the people that need to be reached, along with children in school.

“It’s not made up. It’s real. Because I went through that system, I know it it’s real, so people have to understand that,” Tacan said.

Indigenous women are four times more likely to be victims of violence than non-Indigenous women, according to the Assembly of First Nations.

And between 2010 and April 2024, 21 per cent of all MMIW cases nationally happened in Manitoba, according to the City of Winnipeg’s website.

Tacan added that events like this need to get more attention from leaders in the city. He said business leaders, RCMP officers and people from the city itself need to be more involved so they can learn about truth and reconciliation.

McPherson said if ceremonies like this one don’t happen, people will forget about what happened to the women and girls who disappeared and were killed.

“We want this to serve as a reminder, that we’ve got to take care of each other. We’ve got to take care of the ones that are gone or missing,” McPherson said. “So that’s really important to us, you know, to continue to care for their spirits as well.”

» alambert@brandonsun.com