Singing from the mountain tops, Indigenous artists Dani Lion and Jodie B are calling the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit people home.
“In the lyric I sing,’I am the river, I am the mountains, I am the rock beneath your soles’,” said Jodie ‘Jodie B’ Bruce, producer and artist.
‘We are just energy. Energy is not destroyed, it is transformed, and so it kind of goes to a message for our lost sisters. When they are gone, they aren’t really gone, they live amongst everything nature.”
Their song called “Mountain Prayer” is a call to action.
“It’s really important that we do raise awareness for it because if we don’t, how do we change anything about it,” said Bruce.
Statistics Canada shows that Indigenous women and girls are six times more likely to be murdered than other groups of people in Canada, which is a reality the duo knows all too well.
“I grew up here in central B.C., off Highway 16, which is called the Highway of Tears for a reason, because we’ve lost many, many of our women, Two Spirit and men here on this strip here, particularly,” said Danielle ‘Dani Lion’ Mueller, artist.
The song’s meaning is amplified because of its Red Dress Day release.
It’s a day when hundreds marched through the streets of Kelowna, demanding change and justice for those missing.
“This song is about how we can, not only can we have action, but we can have healing through these things that happen to us,” said Mueller.