International Women's Day

AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH MMIWG ADVOCATE Fallon Farinacci BY KRISTIN MARAND Fallon Farinacci is a Red River Métis woman who, as per her spirit name, White Thunder Woman, has come to make noise - to call attention to the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and its far-reaching echoes. She will share her story of resilience and survival through reclamation in her keynote at the 2024 Winnipeg Women's Conference (WWC). In 2017, Farinacci testified at the National Inquiry for MMIWG. In St. Eustache, Manitoba, in 1993, both her parents were murdered while she and her brothers were home. As a result of unresolved trauma and lack of mental health support, she lost her older brother to suicide at the age of 29 and, 19 years later her younger brother at the age of 36. 12 CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY S U P P L I E D P H O T O "You can expect authenticity, vulnerability, and an opportunity to hear firsthand experience and walk away with an understanding of my story and who I am as a person. And then potentially, be able to take that and implement some of the tools that I bring to the table, some parts of my story that can hopefully bring change to their lives, their work, around the kitchen table." Following her parents' deaths, there was an inquiry into RCMP misconduct. Her surviving family chose to approach the circumstances with transparency, so Farinacci has been open about sharing her story. Knowing this, her cousin encouraged her to testify. She agreed because she has a "good, bad habit" of saying, "Anyway, I can help." Farinacci believes that it's worth it if her story can help even one person, or through a national platform like the inquiry, potentially thousands of people.

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