George Sewap hopes to keep the memory of his late aunt alive with an upcoming memorial walk.
Sewap sent a request to Flin Flon city council to hold a memorial walk through uptown Flin Flon on August 18. The request was discussed at council’s July 3 meeting.
The walk will honour Sewap’s late aunt, Flora Ballantyne. When Sewap left his home community of Sandy Bay for Flin Flon in the early ‘60s, he stayed with her.
“I wanted to explore the world and had no opportunities. I had relatives there and had a place to stay. She’d been there for quite a while then,” he said.
Sewap later moved to Regina to continue his education. Now in Prince Albert, Sewap didn’t hear much from his aunt until fall 1979 when he got a phone call from his mother.
“My mom phoned me and said, ‘Your auntie hasn’t been seen in Flin Flon and no one seems to know where she is.’ That must have been around the end of October. It’s been so long, but I remember the call she made,” he said.
The holiday season came and went with no sign of Ballantyne. In April 1980, about six months after she was first reported missing, Ballantyne’s body was found in Channing near the train tracks and the creek.
Nearly four decades later, the memory is still vivid for Sewap. He feels the whole truth about his aunt’s disappearance and death hasn’t yet been discovered.
“She had been gone for a really long time,” he said.
“I think it was a suspicious death. My aunt was not known to wander around at night and she didn’t go barhopping. She just disappeared. I thought it was suspicious. I’m not sure if it was ever reported to RCMP that she was missing. There may have been reports, but I didn’t know all the details.”
In 2003, Sewap began advocating for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. When the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls began 12 years later, Sewap was one of more than 1,250 people who testified at the inquiry, sharing his aunt’s story.
“There are thousands of them now. My auntie is one of them,” he said.
“Our people have been reporting serious concerns. There is an ongoing pattern of missing girls and women, going back a number of years.”
Sewap feels that racism may have played a role in why the events leading to his aunt’s death are still largely unknown.
“It’s present. It’s in the justice system, the health system, the education system. I was denied a room at a hotel once in Flin Flon with my family. We went there and they denied us, cold turkey. They just said, ‘no,’” he said.
In order to pay tribute to his aunt’s memory and to encourage healing, Sewap organized the walk using funding from the inquiry.
“For those who testified, we’re able to access some funding for what they call, ‘aftercare healing.’” It’s usually for a psychologist or traditional doctors. My aftercare plan was to do some memorial events for my auntie,” he said.
Three events will be held to remember Ballantyne, including the walk. The first event will be a two-day traditional healing at Amisk Lake, with the march taking place on August 18. The march will start at Neighbours of the North Park, then head north up Main Street, turn left onto First Avenue and onto Church Street before ending at the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Centre. Officials with the centre have coordinated with Sewap to help organize the events.
The third and final event will be a gathering for family and friends of Ballantyne at the site where her body was initially found. A traditional smudging ceremony will be held at the site.
While the event may provide closure for Sewap and other members of Ballantyne’s family, he said there are ongoing issues with treatment of indigenous women that a walk will not solve.
“I don’t think, until we get to the bottom of why this is happening to our women, our people will not rest. Our women are not safe in Canada. Our girls are not safe. That poor girl who was dumped in the river in Winnipeg, Tina Fontaine – this is still happening now,” he said.
Sewap is open to holding other events and walks in Flin Flon until a national report on missing and murdered indigenous women is released.
“I think we’ll do this until we get the report from the national inquiry and how the recommendations will unfold – if they’re acted on. If they’re not acted on, then we have to continue our struggle,” he said.
