Indigenous Horizons
Totem Poles, Kitseukla
Emily Carr, 1912
Section editor: Dr. Daniel B. Sarvestani
Escape Courage: From Survival to Justice
in the MMIWG Movement
By: Mis-J
Commentary by: Dr. Daniel B. Sarvestani , Assistant Professor
ACSS Department, UCW
Disclaimer:
The name of the author has been anonymized to protect her privacy. The intention of this article is to raise awareness and promote justice. This document was compiled and developed in consultation with the author and in full collaboration with her. She has provided her consent and willingness to share her insights here.
Please take a moment in silence to honor the women and girls who continue to face abuse and violence.
The March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is part of an annual procession held in memory of the ongoing atrocities against women and girls who continue to go missing and be murdered on a regular basis throughout Canada, especially in British Columbia. The march is a grassroots movement that has been organized since 1992. Local First Nation advocacy organizations and community organizers come together each year to lead a march, stopping at strategic points in the city to offer prayers and to make community grievances known to the authorities and to society at large regarding an ongoing issue that has not received sufficient attention.
The march is attended by survivors, relatives, friends, families, and community members at large of Missing and Murdered Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people, who are among the most affected by these ongoing violations. The march takes place every year on February 14, marking over 30 years since its inception in 1992.
The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls points to a serious and ongoing phenomenon in which women, girls, and Two-Spirit people belonging to marginalized communities- most notably First Nations and Indigenous community members- go missing or become victims of homicide at disproportionate rates each year. Many of these cases do not receive adequate attention in society and are often not given sufficient priority by authorities. Many daughters, children, and family members who go missing or are murdered do not receive thorough investigations, and families continue to seek justice and answers without meaningful responses. Many of these cases remain unresolved. This speaks to the impunity that continues when violence is directed against First Nations, minorities, and marginalized communities.
This violence is not limited to women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. Indigenous and First Nations men also face similar violence, including murder and disappearance, particularly young men within the community. A lesser-known march for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Men often takes place the day after February 14. Although it is usually less publicized, it is equally urgent and involves a similar community gathering and march. There is a Missing Indigenous Men march coming up in 2026, which I attend every year.
This year, UCW faculty had the opportunity to participate in the events, standing shoulder to shoulder with community members who have been directly impacted by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Mis-J, who is herself a survivor, was present at the event and shared her insights on the matter.
Below is her testimony:
“I just want to give a big thank you to Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh for allowing me to write this on their territory on the Missing Indigenous people, where I thank all the organizers, elders, city and police on the acknowledgement of a job well done, and volunteers and helper support system as well. This is part of an annual procession held in memory of the ongoing atrocities against women and girls who continue to go missing and be murdered on a regular basis throughout Canada and United States, especially in British Columbia, who are taken, trafficked, used, abused. The march is a grassroots movement that has been organized since 1992, where the power and emotion on the missing women, sisters, girls in downtown east side and other parts of Canada who are dearly missed by family, friends, and community is deeply felt. It raises awareness, and although there has been disappointment in the community, it has raised voices today where victims and their families demand justice.
I, *****, have taken part in the march since it started, where I watched the movement spark conversations, standing in the circle where the support and voices were so powerful with drums, rattles, medicines, eagle and cedar brushing. It was a powerful feeling with the organizers, elders, youth advocates, and community coming together, showing that there is no more shame and that we support one another each year.
The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls points to a serious harm on survivors like me, *****. It is something that happened to me in the downtown east side, where I could have been another ongoing case, as many women, girls, and two spirit persons from marginalized communities, especially First Nations, go missing after trusting the wrong person like I did. I was taken in broad daylight, and I never had a candle light when I was missing. I thank creator every day for being alive, as I was a victim but not a homicide victim, and it took me a long time to heal and breathe again. Many of these cases remain unsolved and do not receive adequate attention, and society has to change to protect all nations, as these cases are often not given sufficient priority by authorities. I want justice for myself and for every family, as
families, friends, sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles, and grandparents seek justice. The pain I went through was invisible to others, and many turn a blind eye without support. Still, I became stronger as a survivor, and I continue to speak up so that those who are missing or murdered receive equal investigation and justice.
Through community, culture, and support, I learned to heal. First Nation advocate organizations come together each year, leading marches, stopping at strategic points, offering tobacco, prayers, and respect to honor loved ones who have passed, and making community grievances known to authorities and society. I thank the community, elders, organizers, volunteers, officers, and all those who stood by me, as well as creator, ancestors, universe, and angels for guiding me. I was taught from a young age to honor and respect, and to give without asking for anything in return, as my grandparents taught me this way of life. Even though I did not always receive the support I needed, I gave myself support and stood with those who stood by me. I believe we must come together, not against each other, to support all women, men, and two spirit people, and to honor those who are missing. My trauma made me stronger, and I now call for justice for myself and for those who are afraid to speak. I ask that more people show up, support the marches, and stand with the community so that no one is left unheard, and that all missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people are honored with love, respect, and justice.”
Two Hearts Dreaming: Sacred Relationship, Family, and Collective Belonging in the Healing Journey After the Sixties Scoop
Troy Abromaitis, Nlaka’pamux Citizen | Indigenous Survivors Day Founder
Dr. Daniel B. Sarvestani, Assistant Professor, ACSS Department, UCW
Troy and Daniel visit the grounds where the remains of children from residential schools were first uncovered, a site that stands as a powerful reminder of the ongoing legacy of colonial violence and the urgent need for truth, accountability, and reconciliation.
Troy and Daniel attend the Assembly of First Nations, where Troy presents a motion to establish a National Blanket Day Ceremony
Nearly five years in the making, a powerful initiative led by Troy Abromaitis, with the support of allies including University Canada West and Dr. Daniel Bagheri Sarvestani, has emerged as a significant step toward national recognition and collective healing. At the center of this effort is the proposal for a National Blanket Ceremony Day, envisioned as a day to honour Indigenous Survivors and acknowledge the enduring impacts of colonial child removal policies in Canada. The motion for National Blanket Ceremony Day is now approaching parliamentary consideration for its establishment as a national day. However, it is important to recognize that this initiative is not simply a policy intervention, but part of a broader movement of Indigenous resurgence and relational restoration (Simpson, 2011; Coulthard, 2014).
This initiative is grounded in the understanding that Indigenous kinship systems extend far beyond the nuclear family. Aunties, uncles, grandparents, Elders, and community members all play essential roles in raising children and transmitting knowledge, language, cultural practices, and responsibilities to the land and Nation. These relationships are not merely social constructs; they are sacred for Indigenous Nations, forming the foundation through which identity, belonging, and continuity are sustained (Wilson, 2008; Simpson, 2017).
The disruption of these systems through residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and other forms of abusive colonial child removal regimes resulted in profound and layered forms of separation and trauma across multiple generations. Children were not only removed from their parents, but from entire relational worlds: from parents and immediate family, from extended kinship networks, from community and cultural teachings, and from Nationhood itself.
Families, communities, and Nations lost generations of knowledge carriers, while children grew up without the relational and culturally grounded foundation necessary to understand who they were and where they belonged.
And yet, even in separation, connection endured. Families continued searching. Communities remembered. Parents held onto hope. Likewise, children carried an awareness that part of themselves remained elsewhere. This is reflected in Troy’s own story of reconnection with community and biological family ties.
This is also the story of “Two Hearts Dreaming,” the foundational principle behind the National Blanket Ceremony Day, as articulated by Troy Abromaitis.
As Troy envisions it, the “Two Hearts Dreaming” principle speaks to a relational worldview rooted in enduring, unbroken, and sacred connections between parent and child, individual and community, and person and Nation. It represents ceremonial acts of remembering and hoping, and, as Troy describes it, symbolically “calling the children who were removed from their community and family home across time and space.”
The dream carried by Troy and her biological mother to be reunited becomes a shared vision of healing for communities and children who experienced systemic abuse and displacement as a result of colonial policies-one that moves communities, institutions, and the country closer toward meaningful reconciliation.
Relationship as the Foundation of Identity
At its core, “Two Hearts Dreaming” reflects the lived experiences of survivors of child removal regimes, including Sixties Scoop Survivors. It is a Survivor-informed concept grounded in Indigenous understandings of relationship, encompassing family, community, ancestors, land, and Nation.
For Indigenous peoples, identity is not formed in isolation. One comes to know who they are through relationships that are both social and sacred. These connections are not incidental; they are responsibilities carried across generations, linking past, present, and future, and bearing responsibility for those yet to come (Wilson, 2008; Simpson, 2014).
The Sixties Scoop and residential school system disrupted these relationships at their foundation. Thousands of Indigenous children were removed from their families and placed into unfamiliar-and often harmful or abusive-environments. These processes contributed to what can be understood as systematic ethnocide—the intentional erasure of Indigenous identities, relationships, and connections to land and community (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015; Wolfe, 2006).
While public discourse often emphasizes legal injustice and social harm- and while Canada has taken important steps through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Calls to Action, reparations, and the adoption of UNDRIP- the deeper rupture persists. Emotional, psychological, intergenerational, and spiritual harms continue to affect communities today (Bombay, Matheson, & Anisman, 2014).
The “Two Hearts Dreaming” paradigm, as envisioned by Troy, offers a way to engage with these deeper dimensions of harm.
The Meaning of “Two Hearts Dreaming”
“Two Hearts Dreaming” insists that despite the harm inflicted, there remains an enduring and unbroken connection between those who were separated, along with a collective longing for return. It affirms that Indigenous peoples continue to exist, resist, and maintain profound connections to community, ancestry, and land (Coulthard, 2014).
For Troy, the “two hearts” symbolize multiple forms of remembering across time and space: a parent dreaming of their child’s return; a child searching for belonging; a family holding space across generations; and a Nation waiting for its children to come home.
“Dreaming,” on the other hand, holds profound meaning in many Indigenous worldviews. Dreams are not simply internal experiences; across many First Nations cultures in British Columbia, they represent pathways to knowledge, connections to other realities, and forms of world-making (Simpson, 2011; de la Cadena, 2015). In this sense, “Two Hearts Dreaming” combines the enduring bond between parent and child with the generative power of dreaming-to reimagine and reconstruct a world disrupted by colonial systems, and to move toward one grounded in unity and healing.
It is a call to dream a reality to recognize, to affirm unity in the face of separation, and to move toward collective healing.
Ceremony as the Reweaving of Relationship
This is the underpinning philosophy of the envisioned National Blanket Ceremony Day. Ceremony plays a central role in this restoration. Through ceremony, individuals are witnessed, welcomed, and reaffirmed as belonging to family and Nation (Wilson, 2008).
The act of blanketing, a cultural practice among many First Nations of the Pacific Northwest, is often associated with honouring, protection, recognition, and the reaffirmation of relational belonging.
The proposed National Blanket Ceremony Day embodies these principles, guided by the philosophy of “Two Hearts Dreaming.” With support from University Canada West, advocacy efforts have brought this initiative to national attention. In 2024, Troy Abromaitis and Daniel Bagheri Sarvestani traveled with Sixties Scoop Survivor representatives to the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Winnipeg (Treaty 1 territory), where collective advocacy led to widespread support for the motion.
Today, the motion is being brought forward for federal parliamentary consideration. University Canada West has played a meaningful role in this process, and as this work continues, “Two Hearts Dreaming” will remain a guiding principle in co-creating visions of unity, truth, and reconciliation.
“Two Hearts Dreaming” reminds us that separation never fully ends sacred relationships- even in the face of absence or loss. Parents continued loving. Families continued remembering. Communities continued waiting.
References
Bombay, A., Matheson, K., & Anisman, H. (2014). The intergenerational effects of Indian Residential Schools: Implications for the concept of historical trauma. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(3), 320–338.
Coulthard, G. S. (2014). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. University of Minnesota Press.
de la Cadena, M. (2015). Earth beings: Ecologies of practice across Andean worlds. Duke University Press.
Simpson, L. B. (2011). Dancing on our turtle’s back. Arbeiter Ring Publishing.
Simpson, L. B. (2014). Land as pedagogy. Decolonization, 3(3), 1–25.
Simpson, L. B. (2017). As we have always done. University of Minnesota Press.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Final report summary.
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony. Fernwood Publishing.
Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387–409.
Troy presenting on the Blanket Day ceremony
Troy reconnecting with Nicomen band community and family
From Symbol to Meaning:
Integrating the Seven Sacred Teachings
Dr. Siavash Rokhsari
ACSS Department, UCW
The Seven Sacred Teachings come to us from the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) peoples of the Great Lakes region. These teachings have resonated across many Indigenous knowledge systems across Turtle Island, offering a set of ethical and spiritual principles that guide how individuals relate to themselves, others, and the world around them (Benton-Banai, 1988)
Teachings such as wisdom, respect, love, honesty, humility, bravery, and truth are not abstract concepts but lived values, often expressed and remembered through animal symbols and visual storytelling. Meaningfully incorporating these teachings into students’ learning goes beyond cultural acknowledgment; it creates space for ethical reflection, relational thinking, and a more holistic understanding of knowledge. When thoughtfully integrated into education and future professional practice, these principles can shape how students make decisions, communicate, collaborate, and act with responsibility in diverse contexts.
The following is an example of how these teachings were thoughtfully incorporated into a Visual Communication course (COMM207). In this activity, students engaged with the spiritual and symbolic dimensions of Indigenous traditions through a guided, art-based exploration. They were introduced to a series of Indigenous artworks alongside a short video in which Elders explained the meanings behind key animal symbols associated with each teaching, such as the beaver representing wisdom.
Working in seven groups, each team focused on one of the sacred teachings. Students identified the ethical principles represented by each animal and discussed how these values could inform their educational paths, personal development, and future professional roles. Each group then shared their reflections with the class, connecting these teachings to both short- and long-term goals.
Through visual presentations and discussion, students explored how these teachings could be applied to everyday challenges and decisions. Importantly, the activity encouraged them to move beyond a purely decorative or superficial engagement with Indigenous visual elements and instead approach them as carriers of meaning, responsibility, and lived knowledge. This process fostered deeper cultural awareness, critical thinking, and a more intentional approach to visual communication.
Students create visual posters illustrating the application of the Seven Sacred Teachings in their personal, professional, and academic lives
References
Benton-Banai, E. (1988). The Mishomis book: The voice of the Ojibway. Indian Country Press.