Clarence Abraham is 54 years old, but that hasn’t stopped him from embarking on an ambitious walk to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women in B.C.
“There’s not enough awareness in the world for missing and murdered Indigenous peoples,” Abraham’s niece Samantha West told Global News.
“And the list just grows longer and longer — even today, the list goes on and on.”
Abraham is walking 370 kilometres from his hometown of Takla to Burns Lake.
He will be stopping in Lejac in honour of his father, who attended residential school there.
West said her uncle was undergoing treatment about 10 months ago when he heard from some other patients about how families of missing and murdered Indigenous people never find out what happened to their loved ones.
“So one day he said, for his healing, for his journey and his self, that he wanted to do this to help all families around the world, not just our community, but all communities and the world, to seek justice to all the missing and murdered women, men across the globe, because that’s happening too much,” West said.
“Most of us women are scared to even travel alone or to shop alone, let alone be alone anywhere.”
West said that in December 2021 a woman named Carmelita Abraham from the Takla First Nation went missing.
In January 2022, a 51-year-old man was charged with murder and indignity to human remains in connection with Abraham’s death.
“That impacted a lot of us from our community,” West said.
“Impacted a lot of Indigenous people across the world. To find out how our cousin was murdered that way was horrifying. I was very heartbroken for many of us because a lot of us grew up with her.”
West said her uncle is walking for Abraham and the many others whose families never received the answers they deserved.
“This is huge to bring awareness for many of our Indigenous peoples, because we don’t really see that the justice system brings justice to our families,” West said.
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