Anishinaabekwe to walk over 1,400-kilometre walk for MMIWG2S+

By Rick Garrick

SAULT STE. MARIE — Wabaseemoong’s Scarlett Scott is wearing her red Jingle Dress on her healing walk from her spouse’s community of Serpent River to her community in northwestern Ontario near the Manitoba border.

“I have to constantly wear the red Jingle Dress that I had made,” says Scott, an Anishinabe Studies student at Algoma University. “The dress has to travel from where we started to where we’re going to stop and it’s been quite interesting to figure out how, while my body has been able to strengthen itself, and what it needs.”

Scott began the more than 1,400-kilometre walk for MMIWG2S+ on Apr. 24 with the goal of reaching Wabaseemoong by the end of August.

“For myself as a survivor, I felt it was important to help contribute in that way to help others that are survivors to help them speak out and speak up and be able to find the healing they need to reconnect with their culture and reclaim who they are as Anishinaabe people,” Scott says. “I was gifted that vision back in November. I was going to wait until I finished my program but it was something that kept coming and I knew there was that responsibility to respect that vision and to respect who I was as an Anishinaabe woman and a mother and a sister and an aunt.”

Scott says she saw five trees with red dresses while walking near Blind River.

“I spent quite a bit of time in that one spot,” Scott says. “It was really beautiful because I’ve travelled to my partner’s community quite a bit but I’ve never noticed them there before until I walked.”

Scott says she initially began the walk with shorter distances so she could rest her feet and knees, noting she had broken both ankles when she was younger.

“I’ve been doing 15 kilometres a day but as my legs strengthen, I’ve been able to go at least 25 kilometres a day so I’m hoping as my legs get stronger, I can build up the momentum to keep going,” Scott says.

Scott says it rained for two days during her walk, but she had the proper footwear and gear.

“We managed to stay dry and it was actually really nice to travel in the rain,” Scott says. “It is a very cleansing piece of who we are as Anishinaabe people, so it’s felt really nice to be out in the rain. When I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time outside playing in the rain, so being an adult now, it really brought out my inner child — kind of playing in the puddles and listening to the rain fall from the sky onto the trees and the ground.”

Scott says her children have been joining her for parts of the walk along Hwy. 17, noting that one of her goals is to teach them Anishinaabemowin.

“The boys will walk with me for as long as they can, so sometimes it’s an hour they will walk and then they will rest in the vehicle,” Scott says. “I noticed my second youngest son, Koda, and my second oldest, Leo, have been walking quite the distance with me, and they are really enjoying it. They are doing really good and I’m really proud of them for being able to keep with that commitment and walking.”

Scott also appreciated the opportunity to walk with Barbara Day, Connie Manitowabi and Leanne Jonah in the Garden River and Sault Ste. Marie area.

“It was really nice to have that company and have those Grandmothers beside me,” Scott says.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the healing walk.