NBCHS brings awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous people with student-led school walk

Unlike previous years, students were more involved than ever in planning and organizing the event, which was spearheaded by Grace Delorme, an Indigenous Grade 12 student at NBCHS who is trying to raise awareness about the generational trauma Indigenous communities have faced.

“Understanding the effects and the spiritual intent that this land holds, with the trauma that happened on this land, is something that we need to acknowledge and come together to speak out about and heal,” she said. “I was stuck in this very cycle. If I never healed, who knows where I could have been today.”

Delorme gave a speech at the event discussing the loss of Adyson King, a Flying Dust teen who died at 18 in April 2025.

“Me and her grew up together, and she was somebody I looked at as a role model,” Delorme said.

“Just because of the trauma she was dealing with, or trying to find that belonging with a group of people who were all dealing with the same things, it ended up making her lose her life. That could have been me within that group, and I need to speak out because she doesn’t have her voice to speak anymore, and I need to speak out about what happened to her.”

Delorme has advocated for schools to teach more about generational trauma in psychology classes, noting it can help people deal with it earlier in life if they understand it better.

“The effect of trauma destroys a generation of people going into adulthood. That’s the people on the streets struggling with these traumas and this addiction that is engraved and brought upon them. We need to teach about the cycle of trauma to ultimately heal our people. If I got taught about it more, without doing my own research, I feel like it would have helped me heal earlier.”

She said the event turned out to be much bigger than initially anticipated, a turnout she described as spiritual.

“It’s something that deep inside my spirit and my soul, all these people coming here today will allow those that are lost and their spirit — I feel like they’ll hear us, they’re listening to us. What’s most important is us as youth acknowledging and advocating for these people who lost their lives.”

While events like this are important for raising awareness, Delorme, who had reconciliation shirts made for the event, also made a call to action.

“We were promised protection of Indigenous people by the government for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the river flows, and that’s what those shirts represent,” she said.

“The government needs to acknowledge and realize that they made this oral promise to our people, and they need to help us and ultimately bring these cases forward and protect our people because we’re losing way too many of our Indigenous youth.”

(Image Credit: Ryan Lambert/battlefordsNOW staff)

The youth movement was noticed by North Battleford Mayor Kelli Hawtin, who described it as a “change in generations.”

“It’s beautiful to see,” she said. “I hope we continue to see more of these youth participate in awareness events, but also advocacy. They’re here speaking to leaders as well. They’re here speaking to teachers and community agencies about what kind of change they want to see. I think it’s so important.”

Samantha Woodrow, a student at NBCHS, also spoke about the importance of the event.

“It shows how much community we have, like how many people want to bring awareness to it and stop adding names to the list,” she said, referring to the list of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“I think this is great for youth learning about this,” added Kobi Lee, a student from Red Pheasant Cree Nation.

As a student-led movement, the walk symbolizes, as Hawtin said, what appears to be a “generational change” surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous people and generational trauma.

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Ryan.Lambert@pattisonmedia.com

by Ryan Lambert

NBCHS brings awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous people with student-led school walk

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