Families mark 15 years since Indigenous woman’s disappearance in Canada
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In Winnipeg, Manitoba, dozens of Indigenous people and their allies walked on September 12 to commemorate Tanya Nepinak, who has been missing since 2011.
The group began at the location where the 31-year-old member of Pine Creek First Nations was last seen and ended at Odena Circle with prayers and songs. Sue Caribou, Nepinak’s aunt, expressed gratitude for the continued support and called for justice and the return of her niece’s remains.
Nepinak’s disappearance is part of a larger pattern of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Manitoba accounts for 21 percent of these cases nationally, with Winnipeg responsible for 14 percent of all disappearances between 2010 and April 2024. Investigators believe Nepinak’s remains are in the Brady Landfill in Winnipeg, but a search has not yet begun.
Shawn Lamb, convicted in the deaths of two other Indigenous women, was originally charged with Nepinak’s murder, but the charges were paused due to insufficient evidence. After years of refusing to search the Brady Landfill citing cost and safety, the provincial government changed in October 2023. The new government, led by Wab Kinew, began a search of the Prairie Green Landfill, discovering the remains of two other victims.
Currently, a search of the Brady Landfill is underway, focused on a different missing woman, but an official search for Nepinak has not started.
