The national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls will hold its first hearings with survivors and family members the week of May 29 in Whitehorse.

This will be followed by family hearings in other communities, “where we are welcome,” the Commission of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls announced today.

It’s unclear if the commissioners will visit other communities in the Yukon.

“(It’s) great news,” Doris Anderson, president of the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council, said this morning about having a date for the start of family hearings.

“It’s something that the families have been waiting for for quite a while now, so this is incredible news.”

The first hearings, starting May 29 in Whitehorse, will come nearly nine months after the national inquiry launched, on Sept 1, 2016.

For the commission to start its work in the Yukon is “quite an honour” for the territory, Jeanie Dendys, the minister responsible for the Yukon Women’s Directorate, said in an interview early this afternoon.

“We have an opportunity to set the tone for the hearings across Canada.”

In the lead-up to the first hearing on May 29, a series of “regional advisory meetings” will be held in cities across Canada, starting in Whitehorse on April 11, 12 and 13.

Family members, survivors of violence and local organizations have been invited to the April meetings, which are intended to familiarize the commission with the issues in Yukon, and help it “get the lay of the land,” said Tiar Wilson, communications advisor with the inquiry.

“The Tahltans, the Tlingits, the Southern Tutchone, Northern Tutchone all have different local protocols, so that’s something that’s going to be quite important for the commissioners to learn,” said Anderson.

The advisory meetings will allow families to say what health and legal supports they believe should be available during the hearing process, and offer information about local matters, said Anderson.

“Many people have felt they’ve been left in the dark,” said Wilson.

The advisory meetings will also give survivors and families the opportunity to ask questions about what the hearings will be like, and about the national inquiry more broadly, she said.

Think of these advisory meetings as “prep work” in advance of the hearings, said Wilson.

“It’s building trust, basically,” she said.

“We’re building trust with people because at the hearings, it will be more focused on the families’ stories of their lost loved ones. That’s where people will speak to the commissioners about the women’s stories.”

Anderson said she’s excited for the start of the inquiry, which has been a long time coming.

“So far, it’s a little slow,” she said of the inquiry process. “But I’m sure there’s a lot of work that they had to prepare for.”

The commission’s final report on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada is due at the end of 2018.

Dendys acknowledged that having survivors and families attend multiple meetings in Whitehorse, and repeatedly share stories and recall painful memories, is asking a lot.

“It’s a big commitment that can be very difficult for families to manage, a very emotional time for them,” she said.

“We’re very committed to making sure that this in is done in a way that our families expect,” she said.

Families’ and survivors’ willingness to participate in the preliminary meetings is important for the inquiry overall, said Anderson.

“It is the families that do assist us in being more prepared, and it makes a big difference,” she said.

“They basically are looking for answers, which assists us when we go to meet with commissioners.”

The commissioners have been mandated to involve families and survivors right from the initial design stages of the inquiry.

Government officials first met with survivors, family members, indigenous and local organizations, and provincial and territorial leaders between December 2015 and February 2016.

In January of last year, before the inquiry officially began, about 70 survivors, friends and family, and local organizations met with Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Yukon MP Larry Bagnell in Whitehorse for “pre-inquiry meetings.”

The ideas, opinions and stories shared at those meetings were meant to help shape the format of the national inquiry.

Dendys said she hopes to see even greater participation when the hearings begin.

The inquiry’s mission does not include investigating unsolved crimes or reopening cases, despite widespread hope that it would.

Rather, it will explore the root causes of violence against indigenous women and girls at community, police, and institutional levels.

It will examine how racism and discrimination play out in the justice system and in government policy, and it will look into police responses to incidents of violence against indigenous women.

The inquiry can’t find legal fault or place blame for a botched investigation, or for any particular incident of violence or murder.

The national inquiry has taken heat for making contact with a relatively small number of families and survivors thus far.

As of Monday, 147 people had contacted the commission, said Wilson.

“We’re trying to reach out to as many people as possible and try to make people understand that this is a voluntary process; we’re not forcing anyone to talk to us,” she said.

The commission doesn’t have an estimate for the number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Anderson sees this is a problem. She hopes the advisory meetings will help to gather more answers.