On what would have been her 45th birthday, dozens of people gathered in downtown Winnipeg Thursday to honour Tanya Nepinak.
The member of Pine Creek First Nation was last seen in Winnipeg on Sept. 13, 2011.
Marchers wearing red gathered at the corner of Sherbrook and Ellice streets where Nepinak was last seen to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S).
Messages calling to search for Nepinak were spray-painted on sidewalks.
Nepinak’s aunt, Sue Caribou, created custom-made ‘Justice for Tanya’ shirts to gift to family and supporters.
“I have a lot of mixed feelings today,” Caribou told reporters. “I’m overwhelmed because it’s been a long time since we celebrated Tanya’s birthday and today is so emotional for me.”
The then-31-year-old Nepinak left her home on Sherbrook to walk to a pizza restaurant a few blocks away.
She was never seen again.
Convicted Winnipeg serial killer Shawn Lamb was charged in connection with her death. But he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the deaths of two other First Nations women and the charge was stayed.
Winnipeg police searched for two weeks in the city’s Brady Road landfill for Nepinak’s remains without results.
Betsy Kennedy, acting grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, was among those at the march.
She recalled walking to honour Nepinak more than a decade ago. At that time, she said some onlookers were unaware of the MMIWG crisis.
“I was with family when they went to the Brady Landfill a number of years ago,” Kennedy said. “The reason why I’m here today is to provide and let the family know that I still think about her all the time.”
As the crowd sang Happy Birthday and offered medicines to Nepinak’s family, Caribou called for justice and a search of local landfills.
“Most of our missing and murdered are probably at these landfills,” she said, “just like (suspected) unmarked graves (being discovered at residential school sites).
“So I think (authorities) should search all the landfills and consider the landfills as a crime scene, and stop putting trash on our loved ones. They’re not trash.”
