Miles Morrisseau
ICT
In Winnipeg, Manitoba on Sept. 12, dozens of Indigenous peoples and supporters walked in memory of the late Tanya Nepinak who has been missing since 2011.
The walk started at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Sherbrook Street, where the then 31-year-old Nepinak of Pine Creek First Nations was last seen. The group marched past the Canadian Museum of Human Rights before ending up at the Odena Circle where prayers and songs were offered up in her memory.
Sue Caribou is Nepinak’s auntie and she thanked those in attendance for their support.
“I’m grateful and I’m very blessed there are so many beautiful people that remember our loved one and that she’s not forgotten or will not be forgotten,” Caribou told the crowd. “She doesn’t belong where she’s laying. We need justice, we need answers and we need to bring her home and rest beside her loved ones, not in a pile of trash.”
Sue Caribou speaks at the vigil for her niece Tanya Nepinak on September 12, 2026, in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. (Miles Morrisseau/ICT)
Nepinak was one case of many missing and murdered Indigenous women, some who were victims of serial killers targeting Indigenous women.
According to the Thomson Reuters 2025 report, “Missing and Stolen: Disappearances and Trafficking of Indigenous Peoples in Canada,” Manitoba accounts for 21 percent of all MMIW cases nationally from 2010 to April 2024. Winnipeg alone accounts for 14 percent of those disappearances.
Remains of Indigenous women have been found in two landfills sites, the Brady and Prairie Green Landfills.
Nepinak is believed to be in the Brady Landfill in Winnipeg.
Shawn Lamb, who targeted Indigenous women in the mid-2010s, was charged with the murder of Nepinak but the charges were stayed, or paused, leaving the case unresolved due to lack of evidence.
Lamb only served 13 years for manslaughter convictions in the deaths of 18-year-old Lorna Blacksmith from Pimicikamak Cree Nation and 25-year-old Carolyn Sinclair from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, both who were wrapped in plastic and dumped in a Winnipeg back alley. Lamb was released in November 2025.
Lamb is one of two serial killers along with Jeremy Skibicki who targeted Indigenous women in Winnipeg.
Melissa Robinson is the head of the Missing and Murdered Peoples unit at the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
“For 15 years this family has been fighting and yelling and advocating to bring Tanya home. Fifteen years ago this should have happened. Here we are still standing here 15 years later waiting for them to go search that landfill to bring her home,” Robinson said. “My family fought to bring my cousin home and we did it in a very short time you know and why are we still waiting and wondering when it’s going to happen for Tanya.”
Robinson’s cousin, Morgan Harris, was one of the victims of serial killer, Jeremy Skibiki, who targeted Indigenous women and dumped their bodies in a Winnipeg landfill.
Family and supporters of Tanya Nepinak march past the Canadian Museum of Human Rights on September 12, 2026, in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. (Miles Morrisseau/ICT)
Family members and supporters set up a camp at the Brady Landfill to pressure the government to begin a search.
The provincial Conservative government at the time refused to begin the search stating that it would be expensive and dangerous and used the issue as a campaign platform to represent their fiscal responsibility.
They lost the election in October, 2023 and the New Democrat Party led by Wab Kinew, Anishinaabe, won a majority government and soon after announced that a search of the Prairie Green Landfill would commence.
The search discovered the remains of Harris and Marcedes Myran who were victims of Skibicki.
At the beginning of 2026 the search of the Brady Landfill began with the focus on Ashlee Shingoose who was given the spirit name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, before her identity was revealed through DNA testing.
An official search for Nepinak has not begun.
“We wonder where she is or who took her. How come they’re not investigating? They’re not doing anything. They just want to forget about her,” Caribou told the gathering. “But I’m not gonna allow that. We need to work together. That’s the only way that it’s gonna happen, no more missing and murder, if we work together as one.”
Robinson told the crowd that they should be angered by the delay to search for Nepinak.
“I’m looking over at her daughter over there, Jasmine,” said Robinson. “When she was 10 years old lost her mother and knows where her mother lays. We should all be angry, we should all be upset and we should all be demanding that it happens now. No more waiting. I’m sick and tired of waiting. Tanya needs to come home, end of story.”
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