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Vigil held for aboriginal women

Missing and murdered aboriginal women were remembered in Red Deer Thursday.

Missing and murdered aboriginal women were remembered in Red Deer Thursday.

A City Hall Park vigil and walk to the Red Deer Native Friendship Centre marked the National Day of Vigils by Sisters in Spirit. The eighth annual Oct. 4th effort by the Native Women’s Association of Canada commemorates nearly 600 victims, about 100 of those Albertan.

The event proved poignant for Angela Crane. The Sylvan Lake woman and her daughters Trista, 16, and Charmaine Bruno marched to remember her cousin Georgina Papin, one of 33 women whose remains or DNA were found on convicted killer Robert Pickton’s B.C. farm in 2001. She’d been missing for two years and only her fingers were found.

“It was traumatizing. I treated her as a sister because that’s what we do (with cousins) in our culture. You don’t know how to respond to it.”

Some among the 45 participants shed tears as they treasured lost sisters, aunts, cousins and mothers. A few wondered if their missing loved ones would ever be found.

The local case of Rhonda Running Bird might be representative. The 25-year-old mother of three disappeared Mar. 26, 1995 while hunting near Swan Lake west of Caroline. After she, husband Fred Lagrelle, their son Marcel and Fred’s aunt Liza got their truck stuck, Fred left looking for help, followed shortly by Rhonda.

Despite a motorist rescuing Fred, Liza and Marcel two days later, numerous searches by police and volunteers never found Rhonda.

Not knowing is the worst part, said Crane.

“At least we found out what happened to Georgina. Some don’t get even that.”

The event was sponsored by the Red Deer Native Friendship Centre, Central Alberta AIDS Network Society and Action Coalition on Human Trafficking, Red Deer.