Linda Epp hasn’t lived in Whistler since 2021.
That trivial fact isn’t stopping the activist from bringing the Sisters in Spirit Vigil back to the resort for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Epp founded the powerful event in 2015 to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited (MMIWG2S). That was one year before the federal government launched a national inquiry, formally acknowledging the dark reality First Nations communities had been calling attention to for decades: Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people are murdered, abused, and disappear at shockingly high rates.
“This is still happening,” Epp said, even if “the world is now more aware of what Indigenous people in Canada have gone through.”
Epp is a member of the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation, but was raised by a Canadian-German Mennonite family after she and her twin sister were separated from their birth parents during the Sixties Scoop. She landed in Whistler in 1997, where she stayed until the housing crisis and work opportunities prompted her return to Vancouver two-and-a-half years ago.
“I’m just so attached to [Whistler’s] community and the people—the Lil’wat and Squamish people, but the community members as well, and the allies,” she said. “I say Vancouver is my home city, but Whistler is my hometown … I’ve done a lot of hard work in the past there, and I think I can still continue to do so. Even if I’m in Vancouver, I think there’s still powerful work to do in the Sea to Sky corridor.”
As usual, Sisters in Spirit invites participants together on Oct. 4—the National Day of Action for MMIWG2S—to hear from individuals and families impacted by this epidemic, share in their heartache, and advocate for change.
This year, however, marks the first time Epp is expanding the event to take place over two days.
The Sisters in Spirit Vigil walk begins at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. All are invited to meet at the Welcome Totem Pole, in Whistler Village Common by Mongolie Grill and Shoppers Drug Mart, before journeying together down the Village Stroll. (Unless weather fails to cooperate, that is, in which case an indoor gathering at the Maury Young Arts Centre will replace the walk.)
It’s a heavy topic, Epp acknowledged—one she’s tried to lighten in previous years by concluding the walk with uplifting singing and drumming. “This year, I want to do something even better,” she said.
Specifically, Epp wanted to wrap up the sombre National Day of Action by shining light on Indigenous success. So, she reached out to some friends to join her.
Sisters in Spirit will continue Wednesday evening with a presentation and Q&A with Lorimer Shenher at the Maury Young Arts Centre from 7 to 8 p.m.
The author, speaker, and advocate was the first Vancouver Police Department detective assigned to investigate missing and murdered Indigenous women in Vancouver. He detailed his role in that investigation in That Lonely Section of Hell, an acclaimed memoir that also recounts his years-long struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his work on the case.
Wednesday’s event continues with a Spirits Rising Drumming Session at 8:30 p.m., led by Epp alongside Bill Helin, the Tsimshian/Norwegian artist, author and children’s educator who has visited classrooms to share his ancestors’ teachings through story drumming since 1990. Their goal is “to elevate the women to come out of the ground and fly high among the Eagles, and have the ancestors welcome them,” Epp said.
With that in mind, the aptly-named Spirits Rising Fashion Show will follow on Thursday evening, Oct. 5. Locals and visitors are invited back to the Maury Young Arts Centre to celebrate the creativity of Himikalas Pamela Baker, a fashion designer who grew up on the Capilano Indian “Xwemelch’stn” reserve in West Vancouver and is known to take inspiration from her Squamish, Kwakiutl, Tlingit and Haida ancestry. Ten Indigenous models will take to the runway wearing 30 of Baker’s breathtakingly-intricate contemporary Indigenous textile designs.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. before the show kicks off at 7 p.m. The event will conclude with a post-show reception and Q&A with the designer.
In the lead-up to next week’s event, Epp travelled up the Sea to Sky highway to continue her tradition of hanging red dresses in a growing number of local businesses.
A striking symbol of MMIWG2S, the dresses “provoke discussion,” said Epp, “and not just with the locals, but the people that are coming into the community and that are tourists. Because in the beginning, in reality, it was considered political.”
Entry to Wednesday evening’s programming costs $5 per person, while tickets to Thursday’s Spirits Rising Fashion Show are on sale for $10 each. Tickets are available for purchase at the Maury Young Arts Centre. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. on both Oct. 4 and 5. Wednesday morning’s walk is free to attend.
