Ribbon skirt at the Port Elgin library remembers Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

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The Saugeen First Nation Public Library is partnering with both the Bruce County library and musuem to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Melissa Root from the Saugeen Nation Public Library and Resource Centre has been working hard the past month organizing family and community from Saugeen for an important project.

Together they have designed and sewn 20 ribbon skirts to be displayed at all seventeen Bruce County Public Library Branches and in the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre for May and June.

The mission behind this project is to bring awareness to the estimated 4,000 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the continued risk they still face today.

Melissa, her daughters, Eden and Courage Root, and community members Letitia Thompson, Jocelyn Roote, Tania Ritchie, Julie Brown, Michelle Puddester, Holly Fontaine, Theresa Root, Melissa Root, and Melanie Cameron, came together to sew these skirts in honour of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Each ribbon skirt was created to represent a different story of their stolen sisters. It resulted in 20 unique designs that will be displayed with honour for residents and visitors to view. Before delivering the skirts to BCPL and BCM&CC, Melissa and her family performed a smudging ceremony to purify the skirts for their journey.

Sixty-three percent of Indigenous women have experienced violence, and nearly half have experienced sexual assault, as reported by Statistics Canada in 2022. While the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s research shows that Indigenous Women and Girls accounted for 10% of all female homicides since 1980 while only making up 4% of the population. This year the House of Commons has declared the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous Women and Girls a Nationwide emergency.

Make sure to stop into your local Bruce County Public Library Branch or visit the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre to see these one of kind skirts and learn about what they represent. To learn more, please read the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

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source: media release, BCPL