With smudging smoke rising in the air, an outdoor tree was lit up Sunday with lights to bring awareness to the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people across Canada.
On Nov. 17, the Barrie Police Service took part in the Tree of Hope campaign with a quiet and solemn ceremony at their headquarters on Fairview Road.
Speakers at the event included Barrie Native Friendship Centre cultural resource co-ordinator Petranella Briscoe, Elder Ernestine Baldwin and Police Chief Rich Johnston.
The campaign began in 2019 with the Thunder Bay Police Service and Constable Sharlene Bourdeau.
Since then, the initiative has been taken up by other police services and has raised tens of thousands of dollars toward rewarding individuals who come forward with information leading to arrests of those responsible for the disappearance of missing women.
Seeing the amount of interest in campaigns such as this one means that “people are really wanting to learn more about Indigenous people,” Baldwin told BarrieToday on the sidelines of the event.
“It brings people closer together, too, to know that the police department, or other organizations, want to embrace reconciliation.” she added.
Personally, for the Barrie Native Friendship Centre's Mike Culver, it's about caring and paying respect to those murdered and missing Indigenous women.
“They’re our balance. Men are fire and women are water, so they hold a balance in life. They’re our mothers, they’re our grandmothers, they are community keepers, so they have a very strong value in our community,” he explained.
Johnston called the campaign a “beacon of light.”
The event and its purpose hits close to home for many in the local community, as Barrie’s Autumn Shaganash is one of those women, missing since the summer of 2023.
“She has a family who cares about her, and we want to help unite them,” Johnston told BarrieToday.
“There’s so many individuals that have gone missing or have been murdered in Canada. And in a country of laws that prides itself on that, we recognize we need to do better, and we will do better,” he added.
The Barrie Police Service has lit its Tree of Hope annually since 2021.
