MEDICINE HAT, AB —Since 1970 the number of missing and murdered indigenous women ranges from 1,000-4,000.
Matthew Jefferson is walking across Canada to raise awareness after his aunt went missing in 2017.
He was in Medicine Hat over the weekend and says he hasn’t never been by himself on this trip.
“I’ve never felt alone. I may be miles from the nearest person but I’m never alone,” said Jefferson.
Starting in Victoria, Jefferson has already walked over 2,000 kms and by the end of his trip he will have walked over 6,000 kms.
The journey may be long and tiring but it pales in comparison to what his family has endured.
“The pain that I saw in my family. That I see in my grandmother not having a body to bury. Having the hole in our hearts. That was my inspiration to do something,” said Jefferson.
Jefferson’s aunt vanished in October 2017. She had been picking mushrooms with another man when she disappeared from the highway of tears, a stretch of highway 16 where many indigenous women have gone missing.
“He had returned to the car but she had not,” said Jefferson. “A few days had gone by and then they decided to start searching as defeated protocol and she was quite missed.”
Maggie Amarulik can relate to the pain Jefferson and his family feel.
Her sister was murdered in 1993.
Amarulik believes investigators never took the case seriously because her sister was indigenous and had been drinking before she died.
She says seeing Jefferson has given her the courage to speak out.
“I’m more willing to get the word out because it’s making me realize that we’re now being heard. Before it was just we were just in the back, nobody really talked about the missing and murdered,” said Amarualik.
Jefferson says each story he hears, it feels like that person is walking alongside him as he continues across the country.
When he arrives in St. John’s, Newfoundland to mark the end of his walk, Jefferson hopes he sparked change from both sides.
“Having non-indigenous communities respect and have a better understanding of indigenous culture, the values of the people and just how wonderful we are as people. See us as people. Treat us as people. That is the biggest thing for me,” said Jefferson.
