To begin, thank you for letting me speak here as a witness, and I'd also like to acknowledge the traditional land that we are on.
Rates of violence against women are higher in the north than in any other jurisdiction in Canada. Aboriginal women are more likely to experience violence than any other women. If we combine these two factors, we know that aboriginal women in the north are more likely to experience violence than any other group in the country. Violence in northern communities has become an epidemic, and that's just the cases that are reported. There are a great number of violent incidents that are not reported in Yukon communities. Violence against aboriginal women continues to be one of the most pressing issues our community faces.
We have worked hard over the years to create programs and services to support these women and their families in a culturally relevant context. We have taken a proactive and preventative approach wherever possible. Many times, however, we are working with victims in the aftermath of a crisis.
We have fought hard for more resources for aboriginal women in Yukon communities. In the summer of 2010, we began a regional Sisters in Spirit project to do community-based research on missing and murdered Yukon aboriginal women. Within three short months of research, we became aware of at least 29 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women in our communities. While this number probably doesn't sound high, in a jurisdiction the size of the Yukon—35,000 people—this number is important. Twenty-nine of our Yukon sisters are dead or missing. This is simply unacceptable. There is at least one from every major first nations family in the Yukon, which means that all of us here have been impacted by this tragedy.
We have begun working with the Native Women's Association of Canada to help us do our research and develop our project, but since their funding has been cut, our project is in jeopardy of not being as in-depth as we had hoped. The project is contingent on the analysis of information we collect so that we can work with families and communities in a healing process and help engage them in the prevention of violence. We are concerned that without the assistance and expertise of the Native Women's Association Sisters in Spirit staff, our original project will not be successful, which means that our efforts aimed at preventing violence against aboriginal women will not be as successful.
There are 29--29 and counting—missing and murdered aboriginal women in the Yukon alone. That's 29 women who are valued as mothers, sisters, daughters, aunties, cousins, grandmothers, wives, and girlfriends. They are 29 women who, through not only their deaths but through their lives, affected the lives of their families and communities. Can we put a price on their value? Can we put a price on those who will become missing or murdered in the years to come?