For 28 years the Wilson family has led the Ramona Wilson Memorial Walk from Smithers to Yelich Road along the Highway of Tears (Highway 16), where Wilson’s body was found eight months after she went missing.
For several years, they walked mostly alone. Now, people come from all over to join the walk.
The Wilson family has fought relentlessly to raise public awareness of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and to find answers to what happened to Ramona on graduation night (June 11, 1994), so many years ago.
One of the RCMP investigators who has been searching for those answers said at a luncheon after the walk, tips continue to come in, and that someone knows what happened and needs to come forward or call the tip line.
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Ramona’s disappearance and death are a mystery all too familiar to many families along the Highway of Tears. There have been documentaries, countless news programs, and articles regarding the increasing number of women, girls and men and boys, mostly Indigenous, who have simply disappeared without a trace.
The Wilson family has endured two more disappearances within their extended family, and have a whole generation of children who have grown up with the trauma these disappearances have created in their family and within the community.
“These young women before you are Ramona’s cousins and family who were just babies when she disappeared,” Brenda Wilson, Ramona’s sister said at the luncheon.
“Now they stand before you drumming, singing, standing strong, beautiful and brave, having endured these traumas all of their lives. They will never let people forget what is happening and will continue to advocate for MMIWG2S. They will keep all of our loved ones in the public mind until the answers are found.”
deb.meissner@interior-news.com
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