Author receives recognition for his work

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Warren Goulding of Saskatchewan, author of the book Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference, was presented a social justice award by the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women. Goulding's book discusses the murders of three Aboriginal women-Eva Taysup, Shelley Napope and Calinda Waterhen-and the justice system who let them down by ignoring their violent deaths.

On hand to witness the presentation to Goulding was Mary Taysup, Eva's mother. Eva's sister Bev Taysup was also in attendance, as were relatives of murder victim Shelley Napope, including sister Charlotte and aunts Barbara Badger and Sheila Baldhead.

Badger said the family is pleased that Goulding should receive the award. She said it took them seven hours to drive from Mistawasis First Nation in Saskatchewan and they were glad they did.

"I have to give thanks to Warren and to the Institute of Aboriginal Women for their bringing this awareness out to the public. It's been eight years, but it still hurts. This evening has given me and my family some closure, and the public is able to see that these girls were not just street workers, that these girls were not just people living on the street, that these girls had families and some of them had children. They were human and they were an important part of a family, and Warren brought that knowledge out. It was so good to see them honored," she said.

Badger also commended Goulding for the way he approached the family when researching materials for his book.

"He was very respectful to the family. The way the media went about writing about the missing women was not right. They printed wrong things about the girls and they did not even ask the families what they thought. It was all negative, and they printed things from probably what they heard from other sources. They never even once took the time to come and ask us who was really Shelley? But Warren took the time to find out who these girls were and he took the time to find the human side to these girls. He came to us to see who the girls really were," said Badger.

Goulding has opened up a lot of doors for a lot of families of the missing women through writing this book, she said.

"Like Warren said, there are probably 500 missing Aboriginal women out there. I'm grateful for Warren for he's honored our women. Every time we contacted the police, we were given the run-around. They were giving us false statements and false hope, that the girls were OK. And that one of the girls was living with this guy and she was doing all right. Never once did they come to us and ask us for any information about any of the girls. It took three years before Shelley's body was found," she said.

Muriel Stanley Venne, president and founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, said she hopes the evening will mark a change in how the police deal with and think of Aboriginal women and a new beginning to how society views Aboriginal women. She calls the award ceremony a break-through in getting acknowledgement of the plight of Aboriginal women.

"Like Warren said they did not think anything of the deaths of the women. They were considered not important to society, and this is the part we are bringing forth. The real awareness will begin when they stop killing our Aboriginal women. We have to begin here in order to get to other plans we have in bringing about this awareness. I would like to have a decade in recognition of Aboriginal women, which would have all kinds of wonderful positive things happening that the women could benefit from," she said.

Goulding said he was honored to get the award.

"I was quite blown away by it all. It was quite exciting. There is a company actually thinking of doing a movie on this, so it could be a movie produced within the next few years. The important thing was to make this book a tribute to the women and not in doing a true crime story. I wanted to right the wrongs that were done to these omen, as far as how they were portrayed. To this day it is still very unfair how they portrayed these women. They wanted to refer to them simply as prostitutes, and it is just not fair. The families of the missing women who were here are so special. I can see the way they were affected by this and yet they have so much dignity. It was really inspiring to see them," he said.