Red Dress Day is a reminder of the lives lost and missing from our communities.
Tuesday’s Red Dress Day marches in the streets of Saskatoon, held in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S), include many who need no reminder of the pain they experience every day as they pass by some of the corners from which their loved ones went missing.
“It’s not just an Indigenous issue, it’s not just a woman’s issue, it’s a community issue,” said Debbie Gallagher, the stepmother of Megan Gallagher, who was murdered in Saskatoon in 2020.
The Gallaghers were one of the many families at the march. They have big plans to help other families of MMIWG2S navigate their next steps forward through a foundation they’re launching in their daughter Megan’s name.
“That is what she would have done — anything to help anyone,” Debbie said.
Although they are still healing from the cost of making their daughter’s story heard, they are trying to turn that pain into a path for other families.
“There’s an interesting thing when families of missing and murdered people get together: we don’t have to talk. We just look at each other and we know,” said Brian Gallagher, Megan’s father.
Trials and tribulations
On Sept. 20, 2020, Megan went missing. She was confined and assaulted in a garage before she was killed and put into the South Saskatchewan River off the St. Louis Bridge the next day.
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The Gallaghers led the search when she went missing.
“There is no army coming out to look for anybody. There’s no police coming out for anybody; it was only us, right, so expectations versus delivery was truly a shocker. And I think we quickly realized that the only way we would ever find Megan is to start shaking the grounds ourselves,” Debbie said.
Two years later, her remains were found on the bank of the river, about 105 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, near St. Louis.
While searching for answers, the family had to learn how to raise awareness while questioning how much information was too much to share publicly.
“Probably about a year and a half into it and I said, ‘You know what? I changed my mind. I do want you to imagine for 24 hours, your loved one is missing, what would you do?’” Debbie said.
“Would you eat that day? Would you sleep that day, would you drink water? Would you be able to create a poster? Would you know how to conduct a search?”
Once the trials for the nine people originally charged in Megan’s murder began, they were presented with another set of barriers: understanding the judicial process.
“We did find a huge value in being there, just having them seeing us in the place to know that somebody cared about Megan,” Brian said.
“So having to go to 400 court appearances, the expenses to us personally were quite high.”
This year, they attended the final sentencing for the seven people convicted in Megan’s death.
“We have family members that have had family members missing for over 30 years. I dedicated my own life for 20 years and I’m still dedicating my life to try to bring support or a level of understanding when it comes to the needs of the families,” said Saskatoon’s auntie advocate, Dorthea Swiftwolfe.
The needs of families are unique, and according to advocates, have been unaddressed for far too long.
“If you don’t start walking, you’ll die too. You give up. So you have to,” Brian said.
“The choices that you have are so limited…. If we had in any way given up on this, I’m not sure where we would be today. I think Megan still might be missing.”
Another hill to climb
The Gallaghers say even though they’ve spent six years tackling new challenges while reliving their trauma in the courtroom, they are not finished fighting to keep honouring Megan.
With their foundation, they plan to continue their work with the Saskatoon Police Service’s missing persons unit, supporting families in court and giving speeches on MMIWG2S in Saskatchewan.
“It’s been a need for absolute years. It should have been there to support the Gallagher family. And if it wasn’t for organizations stepping up and supporting them, they would not have had that support,” Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. president Shirley Isbister said.
The Gallaghers would like to see the foundation expand its work into advocacy for victims and community involvement to educate youth on violence, as well as a fund to lessen the financial burden on families. They hope Megan’s legacy will go beyond their fight for justice and to help the community protect Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
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