About 40 people gathered in Kiwanis Park in Saskatoon on Monday night for a smudge walk in honour of those who have been lost due to violent crime in the city.
Kevin Wesaquate, who organized the walk, says too many Aboriginal people are being lost as the result of senseless violent acts in the core area and it needs to stop.
He says the recent homicide of 77-year-old James Favel is just one example of this.
“I guess the smudge is just to help myself grieve and heal,” he says. “As long as everybody else in the Saskatoon community and areas that have been affected by violence or missing and murdered Aboriginal women, just to kind of let them know that we’re all here as a family, as a community.”
Wesaquate says he was moved to organize the walk after losing a friend to violence this past summer.
The walk began in Kiwanis Park with speeches and drumming before proceeding down 20th Street West to the White Buffalo Youth Lodge.