From street patrols to landfill camps, 'Winnipeg' families of MMIWG shape their own justice
indiginews.com
Content warning: This story contains details about the MMIWG2S+ crisis. Please look after your spirit and read with care.
On “Winnipeg’s” north end streets, dozens of people don bright pink reflective vests, each emblazoned with the words “helping is healing.”
The newly formed group, Morgan’s Warriors, are out on this summer evening with the goal to help people living on the streets — handing out food and water, picking up discarded needles and offering harm reduction support.
Before setting off on their first foot patrol, the Indigenous women leading the group smudged the vests with the smoke of burning sage. The goal is to make themselves a beacon of love and safety in an environment where women have been preyed upon — in the epicenter of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIWG2S+).
“If there was a patrol group out there that could have helped our vulnerable women then maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now,” said Melissa Robinson.
Robinson is the cousin of Morgan Harris, the namesake of this patrol group. Morgan is one of the women targeted by the “racially-motivated” serial killer Jeremy Skibicki after they met at a “Winnipeg” homeless shelter, the same way he found his other victims.
After a harrowing trial, and as the families brace for sentencing later this month, the Indigenous community continues to come together in the wake of this horrific tragedy. They are now awaiting the search of a landfill where the bodies of Harris and other women are believed to be buried — something that came to be only after ongoing tireless advocacy from people who camped at the site.
In recent months, this push has shifted into community healing, which is exemplified by Morgan’s Warriors. Since its first patrol, the group has since gone through the inner city and other neighbourhoods, downtown and along the riverbanks.
Robinson said that this is a way to help their family heal from the loss of Morgan by helping others. “We are the group that will lead with our hearts … we’re there for people to show them that we care.”