Well, this is what we've been talking about. I have been with the missing and murdered aboriginal women since the beginning, and I've seen a lot of families. What everybody is really in need of is a voice. I feel that now that the Sisters in Spirit has lost its funding, our voice is gone. We need to bring that voice back. I understand that the funding was only for five years, but we need to continue the Sisters in Spirit. A lot more services need to be done, especially at the community level. I was talking about my case. There are lots of people on the reserve, as everybody is saying, who need to have these services.
I'm very lucky that I was able to get out. It could have been worse. I could have been dead too. I think about that every day. It's just the younger people. I don't want to see what happened to me happen to them. I pray to God that this never happens to my grandchildren. This is what they need to be taught in schools. They need to be understood. I understand that a long time ago we weren't able to talk about this, but now we can talk about it. Sexuality is out in the open. There's no more hiding. We're in the 2000s now. It's time for our children to understand what we never had a choice about and what we had to keep inside all these years. It's going to help our children.
We need to provide mental and physical health and social services, and we need doctors and nurses, not just social services. We need doctors and nurses to help these people get back their health, because there are a lot of them. Most of my friends are all caught up like this in the system. I'm 50 years old. I can't wait any longer for you guys to do anything. I have to go out and tell people and make sure that we are heard. We as families need to know that somebody cares. We need a lot. We need a place to grieve. We need a place, as I said, to honour our missing and murdered aboriginal women, and this is what I would like you guys to look at.