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There are so many
important women in my life.

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Some of these women are family members,
friends, colleagues.

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I am certain that every single person
in this audience today

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has a woman that they love dearly.

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Could be their mother,

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their daughter,

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their sister,

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their grandmother, even a colleague.

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Maybe you're smiling right now
because you're thinking about them.

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Maybe that smile changed into a chuckle

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because you remember a fond memory
that you have with them.

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Do you feel that right now?

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All of us are reflecting on love,

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that love when we close our eyes,

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when that Sun hits our face

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and it warms our head
all the way through our body.

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I encourage you all
to hold onto that today

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because that's what
we're going to talk about.

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We're going talk about
what is missing in society today.

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There is a lack of love and respect

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for our murdered and missing
indigenous women and girls in Canada.

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I am not saying that there is not love.

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I am not saying there's opposite emotions
of love towards these women,

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but it can be greater, much greater.

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I am hoping today

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[that] the love that
we've just built together

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by reflecting on the women and girls
that we love in our lives

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will encourage you to see
through a new lens in light

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how beautiful these women are.

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The beautiful truth, the hidden reality.

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But first, Boozhoo, Aanii,
Tamara, an Indigenous girl

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from Bear clan from Gull Bay First Nation.

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I am an indigenous woman
that currently is challenged every day,

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living with the intergenerational trauma
of the Canadian residential school legacy

35
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and as well as one of my family members

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being taken and listed
with their stolen sisters.

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I share this because I live
in this fast-paced society

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that is so disconnected to the land,

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very academically focused,

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very career driven,

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and I'm walking it

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wearing a moccasin on one foot
and a high heel on the other,

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doing my best to maintain a balance.

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So today when I'm speaking with you,

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I hope you can see how two worldviews
are being weaved together

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to show the beautiful resiliency
and strength of indigenous women and girls

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living here in the physical world
and in the spiritual world.

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I want to share that I use
the term "indigenous"

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to acknowledge all the women and girls
that are status and non-status.

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This is very important

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because the representation

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that we're using today
in our Canadian society

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for our stolen sisters

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is based on a statistic of status women

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that are First Nation, Inuit or Métis.

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We need to acknowledge
a part of honouring them

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is the history of [dis]enfranchisement,

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where an indigenous woman
when she married a non-status man

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lost her status and Aboriginal rights
along with their children.

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We also need to acknowledge
the Sixties Scoop,

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from 1960s until the '80s,

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where indigenous children were taken away
from their families and communities,

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and brought into foster care and adoption.

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They also lost their status
and Aboriginal rights.

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I'm sharing this

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because there's hundreds
of indigenous people in our nation

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who are fighting for their identity
and their Aboriginal rights

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and to regain their culture
and family ties.

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And I want you guys to reflect upon [this]

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because they could be very visible
as an indigenous person,

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and statistically speaking,

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an indigenous woman has higher chances
of being a target of violence

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compared to to a non-indigenous
person in Canada.

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When a visible indigenous person
who does not have their "status"

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go murdered or missing,

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they're not acknowledged
in that representation;

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they go into a different category.

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My hope here is to honour
all of these women

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and to show

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how controlled the actual culture
and the representation of these women are.

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Part of the culture is,
that I'm sharing with you today,

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and I'm going to share
that culture is a trend,

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and I'm going to share it,
that I'm going to say

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that it's, perhaps unintentionally,
this is happening in our country.

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But the culture of these women

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in research and in educational textbooks,
the media and other publications,

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unintentionally perhaps,

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are focusing on these women as ...

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sex workers,

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runaways,

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homeless,

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substance abusers.

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This predominantly happens
in British Columbia.

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With that type of culture

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that we continue to use
and educate our youth,

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our future seven generations,

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by dishonouring
our past seven generations,

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Where does that lead us to?

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I'm hoping

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that you will see
how this culture of these women

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reinforce the idea that it's okay
to have a lack of moral panic,

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and I'm saying that because that culture
puts the blame back on the women.

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They're to blame.

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And when I speak about moral panic,
I am not saying we don't have it,

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but I'm saying
that it could be much larger,

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just like the love,
and it starts with love.

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When I say it could be much larger,

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I'm talking about a moral panic

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that is not in just indigenous
families and communities

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or in organizations or agencies
led by indigenous peoples.

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I'm talking about a greater moral panic 


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that is for both nations -
indigenous, non-indigenous -

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to unify together, empower one another

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and feel that same fear,

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that fear that something we love, 
our livelihood, our safety

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is being taken.

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It is a common, living, moral panic.

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When it's common, it becomes
a common goal to solve it,

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becomes a common action together.

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Together, we unite, empower,

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and that's part of the healing steps
that need to come forth.

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I've shared now the culture,

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the misrepresentation in the statistics,

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and I shared earlier

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that we lived, my family lives
with the legacy of someone being taken.

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So tonight, I am honouring
my family's case,

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but I'm honouring all women

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in the spiritual world
and on the physical world.

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My great-grandmother,
Jane Bernard, and Doreen Hardy

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were taken in 1966,

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right here in the Thunder Bay district,

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and it's a cold case to this day.

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Now, we remember the culture?

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Jane,

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she was 43 years old.

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Doreen,

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she was 18.

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They were not sex workers.

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They were not homeless.

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They were not substance abusers or users.

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They were not runaways

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and they were not in British Columbia.

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And more importantly,

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this happened in 1966,

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where as statistics that we use
for all our research and education

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use a representation from 1980 to 2012.

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So - and they are status.

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I'm sharing this to hope
for you guys to shift a little and see,

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What are we educating our society?

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Because we use that education
to guide our research,

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use the research that comes out
to guide our media.

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Because this type of representation

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not only dishonours the women
in the spiritual world,

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but it dishonours
the indigenous women and girls

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here in the physical world as well.

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I say that because with the lack
of moral panic in that culture,

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it begins to question,

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What is my self worth?

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Am I worthy of justice?

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Is my life as equal as a person
who is not indigenous?

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Am I worthy to find out,
Why does this keep happening?

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So as I shared earlier,

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you know, my great-grandmother Jane,

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she's listed with
the murdered and missing,

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and then there's my grandma Irene,
who is a survivor of violence,

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and there's my mother, Christian,
who is a survivor of violence,

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and then there's me, Tamara,
a survivor of violence.

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That's a lot of energy, a lot of healing,

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a lot of questioning of my self-worth.

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And then you see this in the media
and in education as well, coming at you.

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It took me eight years and counting

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to say, "I am worthy of love.

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I am worthy to be loved."

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This is important because ...

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so many indigenous women
and youth that I've worked with

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question their self-worth every day.

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Every day is a challenge.

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Every day is an obstacle -

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to live in our society,

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to wonder if they're going to be safe
or if their children are going to be safe.

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Their stories echo,

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much like my family echoes.

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But you know what else?


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We are more.

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We're so much more.

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We are more than murdered and missing.

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We are language.

188
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We are medicine.

189
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We are land.

190
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We are culture.

191
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We are life givers.

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We are so much more
than murdered and missing.

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I hope today

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that you think when you see

195
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our sisters in the media,
our publications, our research

196
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that you reflect upon
how we are more than that

197
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and how the hidden reality,
the beauty of us, is more.

198
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How our voice is more,
our stories are more.

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To create that shift within society
that needs and that starts with love,

200
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to generate that moral
panic that is needed

201
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to honour the past seven generations

202
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and the future seven generations.

203
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Because if we don't make that shift,

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I'm scared to know
where our humanity is going.

205
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I am scared to see where we're going
to lead our research and our education.

206
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I hope today you truly leave

207
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with not only my voice

208
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but the hundreds of voices
that I carry with me every day

209
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by working with these women and youth.

210
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I hope that we could ignite a new way
of learning, doing, being.

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Because I am Tamara Bernard,

212
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and I am more than murdered and missing.

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(Ojibwe) Thank you.

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(Applause)