Students in Kenora, Ontario make faceless dolls to show importance of MMIWG inquiry

Students at Beaver Brae Secondary School in Kenora, Ont., have crafted over 100 faceless dolls as a way of helping people understand the importance of the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

"Being faceless is being a number, so when people see the dolls without faces it's harder to recognize individuals," says Carissa Copenace, the Anishinaabemowin and Indigenous culture teacher at the high school.

"A lot of times our missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, they are just seen as numbers whereas in our communities, in our families we see them as people,"

The anonymity of the dolls is significant, and profound, said Copenace.

"Because they're faceless, they're also voiceless and we have to be the voices for them and that's the power behind the project."

Copenace made two dolls in honour of two missing and murdered women she knew. One doll was covered in elk teeth, to represent the jingle dress the woman liked to wear. Copenace decorated the other with sparkles "for a young woman who absolutey loved sparkled and blue."

Draven Fraser, a grade 12 student at the school, made a doll in memory of a friend, 16-year-old Delaine Copenace.

The teenage girl disappeared in Kenora on February 28, 2016. Her body was found in the Lake of the Woods, near a dock in the community, on March 22, 2016.

• Delaine Copenace, 16, found dead in Lake of the Woods in Kenora

• 'She was murdered': Mother of teen found dead in Kenora believes police got it wrong

The doll in her honour was dressed in green, with blue ribbons and rhinestones, said Fraser, who found participating in the project both moving, and inspirational.

"It makes me want to be a voice for the people who are gone already, and just help people and help families who have lost people."

Copenace said the school understands that many of the students have connections to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and every year tries to do some kind of project around that issue.

Hope students find 'healing'

"I hope they [the students] get healing out of it. I hope they recognize that the world isn't always what we want it to be, but that they can make a change," she said.

The faceless dolls are on display at the museum until November 25, 2017.

You can hear more from Carissa Copenace and Draven Fraser, who were interviewed on the CBC afternoon program, Up North, here.