There may soon be a place in Grande Prairie to honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Delaine Lambert-English spoke to council members on behalf of the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre and asked for their support as she and three other women apply for funding through the National Association of Friendship Centres. She says this monument will be a very important meeting place.
“[It’s] a place for people to go to be at peace, to remember, to visit with each other, to just have that space to go to. Especially for the people whose loved ones are missing because they don’t necessarily have a place to go.”
If the monument is funded, it would be built on the Grande Prairie Regional College site near the Bear Creek Reservoir where a large stone and picnic tables already exist. The land and the monument stone were donated free of charge by the college.
A community talking circle was held to plan out the monument and out of that, Lambert-English says she has two design ideas in mind.
“The main idea is a grotto type monument with a jingle dress dancer etched into it and a place where people can put candles, where people can put offerings [and] they can tie offerings to the trees… There’s going to be a spot with a copper bowl to catch the water because water is very important when it comes to healing.”
Lambert-English hopes to get word on the funding and start work on the monument this summer. She would like to see it finished by National Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women on October 4th.