Indigenous women in Canada fight for the mortal remains of their beloved

A heartbreaking story of Indigenous women murdered and discarded in a landfill, highlighting the ongoing violence and neglect in Canada.

A mountain of windswept garbage and lying beneath it, bodies. For years, the remains discarded by a serial killer have languished in a landfill — the latest chapter in a long history of violence against Canada’s Indigenous women.

Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were raped, killed, dismembered and thrown out with the trash in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Police believe their remains are buried deep inside the Prairie Green landfill. The partial remains of another victim, Rebecca Contois, were found in two places — a garbage bin in the city and in a separate landfill. The body of a fourth, unidentified woman in her 20s — dubbed Buffalo Woman — is still missing.

Their murderer, Jeremy Skibicki, now 37 and linked to white supremacists, confessed in 2022 and has been tried. A verdict is expected next month. But their relatives have been unable to lay them to rest, as the excavations to find their remains have not yet begun.

Little attention

Indigenous women are disproportionately targeted by violence in Canada, and often poorly protected by authorities accused of paying little attention to their plight. Instead, they are thrown “into the trash,” says Elle Harris, the 19-year-old daughter of Morgan Harris.

A member of the Long Plain nation, Ms. Elle Harris is dressed in a traditional skirt, her hair twisted into a long braid.

She says her mother had a difficult life, spending years homeless after losing custody of her five children due to a drug addiction.