A few more specifics have trickled in to the Yukon’s Advisory Committee’s 15-year strategy on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-spirit-plus People (MMIWG2S+) — a plan that’s been coming together for almost three years now.

At a news conference in Carcross on Tuesday, the advisory committee announced more information regarding 10 “priority action items” it had announced in less detail back in May. Two new priorities were also announced.

The territory’s strategy addresses the local impacts of a country-wide epidemic of violence against Indigenous women, girls and Two-spirit-plus peoples.

“Yukon’s MMIWG2S+ strategy has a clear vision: healthy, safe and violence-free communities where Indigenous women, girls and Two-spirit- plus Yukoners are respected, inherently valued, and treated equitably with dignity and justice,” Doris Bill, the Kwanlin Dün First Nation chief and a committee co-chair, said in a news release Tuesday.

“To make this vision real, we must also be clear on how we will achieve it. This priorities document will guide the strategy’s signatories on the best path forward.”

The new document elaborates on priority items identified months ago.

Examples are establishing a trust fund for families of victims and survivors of violence, providing safe housing and poverty relief, and improving sexualized assault and violence response programs.

The new document identifies concrete objectives, organizational leads, milestones and considerations for these “priority action items”.

Tuesday’s release said this will help guide the strategy as it’s implemented, and hold leaders to account on progress. 

There were also two new priorities added Tuesday. They came from talks at May’s Accountability Forum on the strategy. At that event, “family members and survivors raised the importance of supporting men and boys to take action to end violence, as well as the importance of safe, secure, affordable transportation.”

Transportation, according to the document outlining the strategy’s “priority action items,” helps low-income Indigenous women, girls and Two- spirit-plus people access services, visit family and remove themselves from dangerous situations.

“These priorities represent the critical and timely work that signatories need to begin now to achieve the strategy’s vision of healthy, safe and violence-free communities in the Yukon, where Indigenous women and girls and Two-spirit-plus people are respected, valued, treated equitably, with dignity and justice,” said advisory committee co-chair Jeanie McLean, who is also the minister responsible for the Women and Gender Equity Directorate.

“The document we’re sharing today takes us another step forward on a long, challenging and vitally important journey.”

The territory’s MMIWG2S+ strategy was released in 2020, outlining 31 actions to be taken to address gender-based violence against Indigenous people in Yukon communities.

Since then, the advisory committee has been working on an Implementation Plan it hopes will be ready next year. Tuesday’s updated priorities will guide that Implementation Plan. 

This latest announcement doesn’t put any of the priorities it outlines and expands into action.

The advisory committee said Tuesday that its second Accountability Forum will also be held next year. The first, held last May, produced the strategy’s first 10 priority items.

Although Yukon’s MMIWG2S+ strategy was released in 2020, year one of the 15-year plan officially begins in 2023.

Earlier this month, a moment of silence was held for the 42 missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-spirit-plus people identified in the Yukon.

The 2019 National Inquiry report collected thousands of stories of gender- and race-based violence, saying it amounts to a “race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, which especially targets women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.”

Ann Maje Raider, the Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society’s executive director and a committee co-chair, also commented.

“One of the principles of this difficult but necessary work is inclusivity and interconnection, recognizing that it will take co-ordinated efforts to implement this strategy,” she said.

“I am grateful for the contributions of families and survivors throughout this process .... Thank you for your continued bravery, wisdom and trust.”