Tina Fontaine inspires action, hope 10 years after her death at age 15
CBC
The curtains in Thelma Favel's living room are closed, as they have been since her grand-niece Tina Fontaine died in Winnipeg in August 2014. They conceal the gravel road where Favel used to see Tina hop and skip home, waving.
Among the dozens of family photos covering Favel's living room walls — her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and kids she's fostered — pictures of Tina gaze and smile back at her in the dimmed afternoon light.
"She was so full of life, so happy," Favel said from her home near Sagkeeng Anicinabe Nation last week.
"Everything in my house reminds me of Tina — everything, especially her room. That's where I feel so much closer to her," Favel, who was Tina's primary caregiver for most of her life, told CBC News.
In the last 10 years, Favel has lived through losing the 15-year-old and seeing the man accused of killing her be acquitted in 2018.
"These 10 years … have been so hard," Favel said.
Favel has also seen Tina become a national symbol of violence against Indigenous women and girls — but loved ones are still being murdered and going missing, she said.
For the anniversary of Tina's death, Favel and her friend Marilyn Courchene are planning a feast and walk in Sagkeeng, the community about 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg where Favel helped raise Tina, to honour all missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Favel will also read a handwritten letter at Tina's heart-shaped gravestone on Aug. 17, the day her body was pulled from the Red River 10 years earlier.
"The shadows of the past are the light of tomorrow," it begins, her cursive handwriting stretching across two pages. Favel, who is undergoing cancer treatment, says the letter is her way of saying goodbye to her grand-niece.
"She'll never be forgotten, but it is time to let her go."
Favel's emotions before and after Tina's death sit with her to this day.
She last saw Tina at the end of June 2014, before the girl left for Winnipeg to reconnect with her mother.
In the weeks that followed, Tina was in and out of family and friends' homes, hotels and a safe house until she was last seen Aug. 8.
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