By Derek Cornet

Heart display in memory of nearly 1,200 MMIW

Feb 14, 2018 | 7:00 AM

A massive display of red paper hearts is turning heads in La Ronge.

“They’ve been received well by the community,” said Piwapan Women’s Centre executive director Karen Sanderson. “This is the third year for our heart display.”

The hearts were placed by volunteers on Feb. 13 at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s urban reserve in time for Valentine’s Day, she said, and noted there are 1,182 hearts representing the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls throughout Canada. Last year there was one less heart, Sanderson added, as a new one was made for Happy Charles, who was from the community and has been missing since last April.

Also this year, local restaurants will have special placemats on their tables with information on the Red Dress Project, as well as a list of names of those who are missing and murdered. Sanderson said the hearts will stay up until Feb. 18 and the placemats will be at local businesses until they run out.

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“People should care about the topic because this is a major part of our community,” she said. “This is more of a remembrance of those that are missing and kind of a tribute that they’re more than statistics.”

Sanderson went on to say the women’s shelter continues to place the hearts every year because the majority of clients they serve are Indigenous women. She said violence against them is on a great scale in the country, and people need to recognize that and hope for change.

“It’s also something to be thinking about if you see something happening, or if you see someone getting hurt, to take action,” Sanderson said. “Don’t ignore it because we can’t stop anything if people don’t acknowledge it.”

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter:@saskjourno