"Sisters in Spirit call for national inquiry into missing women"

Tashina General was missing for four months before her body was found in a shallow grave in a wooded bushlot.

Paula Joy Martin was killed in a horrendous murder in a Brantford motel room.

Their deaths may have been more than a decade apart but the two Six Nations women are among those remembered as part of the Native Women's Association of Canada's (NWAC) Sisters in Spirit campaign.

And their deaths are just two more reasons Six Nations Police have launched a GPS system aimed at finding lost or missing persons.

Community relations officer Derrick Anderson told the gathering of about 250 people at the Brantford Native Housing (BNH) event last Thursday. The device can be carried around and allows police to hone in on the person's location within one minute of being notified the person is missing.

It was a $35,000 pilot project funded by the Dream­catcher Foundation, he said.

He urged people to report their loved ones missing immediately, not to wait the fabled 24 hours. "You don't have to wait that long," he said. "If they don't come home from school, don't wait 24 hours. We don't want people to wait."

Almost 600 aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1960s, many of the cases still unsolved.

NWAC is urging members of the public to sign their petition calling for an inquiry into the factors leading to the high numbers of missing and murdered women. The federal government has yet to respond.

NWAC organized an annual remembrance service that has grown to over 100 cities across Canada holding vigils to honour these women's lives.

In Brantford about 250 people turned out to mark the seventh annual Sisters In Spirit Vigil over a Thanksgiving dinner at Century United Church.

Sherry Lewis, executive director of BNH, warned women to be safe. "It can happen anywhere," she said. "That's the harsh reality of being an aboriginal woman in this world today. We're very fortunate in Brantford that we don't have any missing women in our community, thank goodness, but there are lots of our communities that are suffering because of loss of loved ones."

Aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable to violence, she said, because of the lower socioeconomic status faced by aboriginal people in general. Add to that the "devaluation of aboriginal women in general in Canadian society" and the women become prey for violent predators.

"When you leave the comfort of your home community, you become prey to non-aboriginal violence," said Lewis.

Lewis said the devaluation of aboriginal women is institutional. "Unfortunately, if this government doesn't see aboriginal women in high regard, the public doesn't either."

Cynthia Barton, aboriginal healing and wellness coordinator at BNH, delivered a joint statement from NWAC that was being read across the country at Sisters in Spirit vigils. "It is our hope that the Sisters in Spirit Vigil movement will live on for generations with Oct. 4 being a national day of remembrance for aboriginal women and girls," she said. "In 2012, we are more committed than ever to honouring our missing and murdered aboriginal mothers, daughters. sisters. grandmothers and aunties on Oct. 4."