Survivors of crime honoured by Native Women's Association of the NWT

When Kathy Meyer puts on her makeup each morning, she always thinks of her missing daughter Angela.

"I do get the feeling of anticipation, daily," Meyersaid. "I struggle with [it] and try and control [it] but it's always there."

Angela vanished from her Yellowknife home in 2010. She hasn't been found.

"It's like I'll be hearing something today," describedMeyer, "At the end it doesn'thappen."

Still, Meyer pushes on.

"We have to keep going for our grandchildren. Our children. People need us."

Meyer shared her story to a room of men and women at a sharing circlein Yellowknife this week.

The sharing circle is one way the Native Women's Association of the NWT is marking Victims and Survivors of Crime Week.

The theme: empowering resilience by acknowledging people who have triumphed over their victimization.

That includesMarie Speakman.

As a child,Speakman witnessed and experienced abuse in residential school.

Speakmanspent the last17 years helping victims of crime through her work at the Native Women's Association of theNWT's Victim Service Program.

Speakman saiddrawing on personal resilience can help others and createpositive change.

"Not to stay at the victim state, but to really keep moving, moving forward," she said.

"Helping myself to reach out, to talk about it,to go to counselling. It takes time. It's not easy."

Speakman sees families of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls taking these steps every day.

"They are still strong.They are still going.They are still coping and those are the things [we need to]hear from each other and support each other and to help each other."

Cyndi Caisse, a guest speaker at the Yellowknife gathering,saidlearning forgiveness was a turning point in confronting her abuser.

"It's a sense of letting go,all that pain and hatred. My body was actually in a lot of pain because of unforgiveness."

Caisse, a mother and grandmother, is from IIe-a-la Crosse, Sask. She is also a mental health and addictions worker with the Yellowknives DeneFirst Nation.

"With the abuse came a lot of negative beliefs about myself that I carried over 40 years," Caisse said.

"If I didn't learn to forgive, I couldn't be doing the job I do now."

The Native Women's Association of the NWT plans to keep the conversation and awareness going. It's hosting a barbecue Friday in Yellowknife.

National Victims and Survivors of Crime Week runs until Saturday.

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