The annual Walk4Justice honouring all missing and murdered Aboriginal women stopped in Yorkton Friday evening.
Gladys Radek and Bernie Williams - she prefers to be referred to by her given name Skundaal - are the partnership that organized the walk, which began in BC.
Both women have been affected by loss. Radek lost her niece, Tamara Chipman, on BC's Highway of Tears when she went missing September 21, 2005. Skundaal's mother was murdered on Vancouver's infamous East Side in 1977, and also lost two sisters and a brother.
But these aren't the numbers they want you to remember.
"This walk was needed because we researched after my niece went missing from the Highway of Tears and there was more to the story," Radek said.
There are 582 confirmed cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada - 16 in Saskatchewan alone.
What makes this number significant, Judy Hughes, the president of Yorkton's chapter of Saskatchewan Aboriginal Women's Circle Corporation explains, is that Aboriginal women make up only 2% of the population. That means the number of missing Aboriginal women would be equivalent to 18,000 missing women across Canada.
But Skundaal and Radek's research shows that the problem is much greater than the confirmed cases show.
Through talking to families and loved ones of missing women, they compiled a list of over 2,900 names of possible, unconfirmed cases - women of all races, 40% of which were Aboriginal.
In 2008, they took this list and walked from Vancouver to Ottawa to not only raise awareness in the general public, but to demand justice for these women from the government.
"We're demanding justice public inquiry into the deaths of these women we want to raise awareness for the families, because these women have left behind children, and we don't want this happening to our children," Radek said.
Skundaal's attitude seems to be, "don't talk about it, let's do something."
Their first walk was in March 2006 when they walked from Terrace to Prince George, BC, and attended the Highway of Tears Missing Women's symposium. Thirty-three recommendations were drawn to address public safety for women.
But these women say justice still isn't being done.
Now in their third annual walk, the walkers lead a chant, yelling "What do we want? Justice.When do we want it? Now!"
They walk together with a small, but strong group. Two of the women, Elana and Cynthia Papin, are walking in memory of their sister Georgina Papin - a victim of Robert Pickton. The oldest walker, 75, has been with the women all three years.
Saskatchewan has provided great support, Elana Papin said, but the message still needs to be spread."I believe that the public has its eyes closed on the issues that are happening," Papin said. She added that there is no known number of missing Aboriginal men, but Radek and Skundaal agree it will outnumber the women.
"We just keep praying and hoping that one day the government is going to snap out of it and revamp the judicial system," Skundaal said.
