Martha Troian reflects on launch of MMIW inquiry

I remember sitting in my office at home, staring out my window while conducting my first interview for CBC'smissing and murdered Indigenous women and girlsproject.I was four days into the work.

I talked to Nancy Masuskapoe, the older sister of Bernadette Ahenakew.

Bernadette Lynda Ahenakew, originally from the Metis community of le--la-Crosse, Sask., was just 22 years old when her body was found on Oct. 24, 1989in a ditch outside of Edmonton.

• CBC MMIW database: Bernadette Lynda Ahenakew

The family doesn't know if Bernadette died beforehand or if her body was simply placed there.

To this day, I remember the deep sense of pain and love Masuskapoe has for her sister.

During that same week, I tracked down and found the family members of Margaret Blackbird.

Blackbird was 21 years old when she went missing from Loon Lake, Sask. in 1951. It remains the oldest case in CBC's missing and murdered Indigenous women and girlsdatabase.

• CBC MMIWdatabase: Margaret Blackbird

Blackbird's relatives, as well as Masuskapoe, were among the family members CBC spoke to who supported an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In fact, 70 per cent of family members we spoke to for our investigation in 2015 over 110 interviews did as well.

For the past two years, I've been part of CBC'sinvestigations into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. However, I've been writing about thistragedy for close to a decade.

• Missing&Murdered: The Unsolved Cases of Indigenous Women and Girls

Over those years, time and time again, I've heard first-hand from family members about the need for an inquiry, and about their dissatisfaction with how their relatives'cases were handled by officialsandthe lack of interest from the general public and media.

Memories of another announcement

On Aug.3, 2016, the federal Liberal government announced the details of that long-awaited national inquiry one that will likely won't start hearing from families until sometime nextspring.

• MMIW commission won't hear testimony from families until spring 2017

I watched the live broadcast of this announcement, and as I did, all of the families' voices and the names of their relatives rushed through my mind just as theydid on June 11, 2008, while I was working for another media outlet and the government of Canada apologized to residential school survivors.

It's like adrenaline shooting through you.

As a journalist, you sense that history is being made and as an Indigenous person, you're acutely aware of its significance.

These are pivotal moments in a journalist's career and something we don't forget.

Finally on the radar

Indigenous families, along with local and national organizationsand leaders, have called for this inquiry for more than a decade.

Perhaps even longer.

The 1988 Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peopleand the 2010 Missing WomenCommission of Inquiry all spoke of the need to address the issue.

But these commissions and inquiries did not exclusively investigate violence against Indigenous women and girls.

• For Indigenous people, inquiries can fuel change but only if governments act

Despite it all, I've witnessed families push for political change even ifit wasn't loud enough for previous governments.

Around two years ago, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harperstated in a televised interview with The National'sPeter Mansbridgethat an inquiry intoslain or missing Indigenous women and girls was not high on the government's radar though he later appeared to deny saying that.

• OPINION: Stephen Harper's comments on MMIW show 'lack of respect'
• Full text of Peter Mansbridge's interview with Stephen Harper

Hearing that an inquiry will finally be held must have been like a weight lifted off the shoulders of many family members, although not all supported an inquiry and there are many who still do not.

Still, families are just waiting for the inquiry to actually begin, some with cautious optimism.

For the families who wanted this inquiry, I hopeit is everything they expect it to be, that their voices form its nucleus,and that it becomes the drive behind the drastic social and political change needed to address this overwhelming national tragedy.