The minister responsible for the Yukon’s Women’s Directorate is calling Wednesday “a historic day.”

Elaine Taylor was discussing the launch of a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada.

“The Yukon has long supported a call for a national inquiry,” Taylor told the Star Wednesday afternoon.

“This is a national tragedy, and it’s not the responsibility of any one government, any one organization, any one individual. It’s going to require the collective efforts on everyone’s part.”

Before an emotional crowd in Gatineau, Que. Wednesday morning, Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, declared the start of a long-awaited inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and presented the five commissioners who will lead the effort.

The commission’s mandate is to explore systemic forces – assimilationist policies, racism, poverty, and more – that cause violence against indigenous women and girls, and increase their risk of experiencing violence.

The commission has also been directed to make recommendations for “concrete and effective action that can be taken to remove systemic causes of violence and to increase the safety of indigenous women and girls in Canada.”

Indigenous and non-indigenous leaders in the Yukon applauded the announcement.

“Like so many Canadians, we are pleased that Canada will hold a national inquiry into what has happened to our stolen women and girls,” Doris Bill, the Kwanlin Dün First Nation chief, said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

“Yukon is prepared, and we will be fully engaged in the long-awaited federal inquiry. We must prevent these tragedies from continuing and provide the families with some measure of peace,” she said.

Indigenous families and communities have been sounding the alarm about disproportionate rates of violence against their women and girls for decades.

Why do indigenous women continue to be victims of violence at higher rates than non-indigenous women and men?

What are the causes? What can be done to fix it?

In its 2015 report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called on the federal government to hold a public inquiry into the disappearances and deaths of indigenous women and girls in Canada.

In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on the promise that he would launch a national inquiry into the missing and murdered if elected, something Stephen Harper wouldn’t do when he was the Conservative prime minister.

The exact number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada is unknown.

A 2014 RCMP report counted 1,181, but that report only took into account police-documented homicides and missing persons cases between 1980 and 2012, and did not include suspicious deaths.

Right now, the CBC is investigating at least 34 other cases of missing or murdered indigenous women where police ruled out foul play but family members aren’t convinced.

After wrapping up pre-inquiry meetings with victims’ family members, minister Bennett said last February that the number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls is “bigger than 1,200; way, way bigger than 1,200.”

Taylor noted that the Yukon and the North in general has “some inordinate levels of violence against women, and when it comes to indigenous women and girls, they are much higher.”

“This has long been identified as ... a very important issue of concern by Yukoners and aboriginal women and organizations,” she said.

While lower than that of the other two territories, the Yukon’s rate of police-reported sexual offences against women was more than 3.5 times the average of that in the provinces, according to a 2013 Statistics Canada report.

The Yukon’s rate of police-reported violent crime against women was also significantly higher than the provinces, though lower than Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

The same 2013 Statistics Canada report, called Measuring violence against women: statistical trends, found that “aboriginal women were disproportionally represented as homicide victims.

“Similarly, victimization data indicates that aboriginal women have higher rates of self-reported spousal and non-spousal violence.”

Last Februrary, the territorial government, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council held a regional roundtable to discuss the high rates of physical, sexual and domestic violence against indigenous women and girls in the territory.

The meeting was co-chaired by Taylor, Bill and Doris Anderson, president of the Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council.

The three leaders signed a document in which they acknowledged the harmful impacts of discrimination, poverty, substance use, residential schools and the loss of language and culture on indigenous women.

They committed to working together, and with governments and the private sector, to address these issues and support healing.

“As the inquiry commissioners listen to the testimonies from the families of missing and murdered women and girls, we will continue to bring a strong and united voice in support of the families of Yukon’s missing and murdered indigenous women and girls,” Anderson said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We will ensure that the messages we heard at the Family Gathering, at the family meeting with minister Bennett and at the Yukon Regional Roundtable are delivered, and we hope that this inquiry helps the process of healing continue.”

It’s still early days, and details of how the inquiry will play out in the Yukon are unclear.

According to its mandate, the commission may set up “regional advisory committees” – local groups of family members, loved ones and survivors – to consult on issues relevant to certain parts of a province or territory.

Taylor said it’s too early to know if such a committee will be established in the Yukon.

There is also the option to set up advisory committees on specific issues.

These committees could include family members, elders, young people and representatives from local and/or national indigenous organizations.

It’s also unclear whether the Yukon will get any special funding to go toward the inquiry’s activities in the territory.

“We have questions, there’s no doubt. Pretty much every other territory and province will have their questions,” said Taylor.

“Once we know further what this information is, how this council is going to unfold, it will help inform our next steps.”

Something she heard loud and clear at the regional roundtable, Taylor said, was that the Yukon’s work can’t stop even though the national inquiry has begun.

“It’s absolutely critical that we work collectively,” she said.

“This is really for the benefit of our entire country, our entire territory.”

See related coverage.