MMIW Prayerful Walkers on their way to Brandon

A small group of Anishinaabek youth are walking from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation on the Bruce Peninsula across Canada in memory of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. Their goal is to walk across the entire country from sea to sea to sea.

They are walking the TransCanada and expect to be in Brandon by this Saturday (July 21).

“Da-namaamin moseyang giw-ganchigaazjig kwewag is Ojibwe for ‘we will walk in prayer for those murdered women,’” says E Naad Maa Get (Branden Emmerson) one of those walking. “Each day we walk in a prayerful manner for one of the murdered or missing. We have that person in our minds as we walk. And we re-tell her story on our facebook page, and on Twitter @danamaamin (#prayerwalk). In this way, we remind ourselves why we walk so far from home, and we keep these women and their stories in the minds of Canadians.”

E Naad Maa Get and Niibin (Tianna Fillo), the other principle Walker, are members of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. They left Nawash in December.

Their logo, designed by Nawash artist Polly Keeshig-Tobias, is of a woman clothed in red cloth (in keeping with the REDress symbol). It is sewn with megis shells, sacred to the Great Lakes Anishinaabek. The flowers represent the Indian Paintbrush, known in Ojibwe as ‘Grandmothers Hair’