A process of healing: Woman creates extensive MMIWG database

What started as a basic search for numbers on missing and murdered Indigenous women has changed the path of one woman's life.

Annita Lecchesi is a PhD candidate in the University of Lethbridge's Cultural, Social and Political Thought program. Three years ago, shewas looking for information on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada and the U.S. for a mapping project. But she had trouble finding complete and accurate data.

• Missing and murdered: CBC's MMIWG database

Since then, she has compiled information from missing persons websites, police records, historical archives, news articles, social media and even spoken with family members who have lost loved ones, to create an online database.

Lecchesi said she has currently logged over 3,000 cases, some reaching as far back as 1900. The database also includes information that may be missing from other sources that family and community members have shared with Lecchesi,like birth dates and if the women had children.

I would want my story to have meaning. I would want my story to be part of the movement to make sure that it doesn't happen to other women and girls.- AnnitaLucchesi

"This has also been kind of a process of healing for communities to be able to have a full sense of how this violence has impacted us and to create a space for families to come forward and share their stories," she said.

Lucchesisaid she hopes her work will help grieving families heal and give peace to spirits.

For her, the work is also personal. She's a Southern Cheyenne descendant anda survivor of domestic violence, and she feels she toocould have been among the women listed in the database.

"I like to think that if that did happen to me,I would want my story to have meaning.I would want my story to be part of the movement to make sure that it doesn't happen to other women and girls," she said.

Lucchesisaid she has also been involved in discussions about legislation, largely in the U.S., and hopesincreased awareness about violence against Indigenous women and girls will lead to policy changes.

"That's really exciting to see that policy makers are starting to listen to us and want to make a difference," she said.

Lucchesi noted the work can be challenging, and said updating the databasehas been prayerful process.

"It means that it's done with intention and love and it's not something I do casually," she said.

"It's such an emotional process I usually set aside a whole day for it every couple weeks and so there's prayer for the women, prayer for their families, prayer for their communities that goes into that process."

While noone owns the information collected in the database,she said itdoes need to be cared for with love and respect. It is accessible only upon request, which sometimes involves consultation with elders and families.

Lucchesi said anyone interested in accessing the database should contact her through thewebsite.

Other prominent work addressingthe issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls includes the national inquirylaunched by the Canadian government in September 2016.It recently wrapped up a four-day hearing in Iqaluit, one of four final hearings.

According to the inquiry website 1,859 families and survivors registered since it beganand 1,273 have shared their stories.

The inquiry expects to complete its research by Sept. 31 and submit its final report by April 30, 2019

In 2016,CBC News also launched Unresolved: Case Closed or Murder? which investigatesunresolved cases that involved the death or disappearance of Indigenous women and girls. It now includes 306 cases, some of which have since been solved.

With files from Loren McGinnis and Rachel Zelniker