Yukon First Nations hope display can bring healing

A group of Yukon women contributed beading to the approximately 1,800 moccasin tops in the Walking With Our Sisters installation that opened Saturdayat the Kwanlin Dun CulturalCentre in Whitehorse.

The display isa commemoration to honour the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.Themoccasintops in the installationwere left deliberatelyunfinished to represent the unfinished lives of these women.

Organizers say there are more than 39 documented cases of missing and murdered indigenous women in the Yukon.

'Bring you peace'

Florence Moses from Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation in Mayo hopes the displaywill bring healing to some.

"If you're coming to see it as a visitor, I just want people to feel compassion," she says.

"And for family members, I'm just hoping that they come and they have a loving environment to come walk with the sisters. Let their emotions be felt. I'm not sure if it's going to bring you closure but to bring you peace."

The display will be in Whitehorse until April 25 but the territory will keep a permanent reminder of it.Ten locally sewn pieces will be put on display at the cultural centre later this spring.

The Walking With Our Sisters installationhas been on display in several locations since the fall of 2013.