About Us — Sisters Walking Together

A team of Indigenous and settler women

Sisters Walking Together is a team of Indigenous and settler women living in the Vancouver area who are committed to walking alongside incarcerated and recently-released women no matter what their situation. As they transition and re-integrate.

Within our team, our members have experienced the realities of 60's scoop, the foster care system, incarceration, substance abuse and recovery, among other things, and we want to support as we have been supported.

Our Story

How We Began

During the past 2 years a small group of Indigenous & settler women began to pray, weep and dream together about a possible new work of transformational relationships with incarcerated Indigenous women as well as justice advocacy with and for incarcerated Indigenous women.

To build trust and become a team we:

Shared meals

Breaking bread together, building community across cultural lines.

Listened well

Listening to each other through cultural differences & honestly addressing conflicts.

Learned together

Learning from wise, experienced Indigenous and other local leaders about incarceration, trauma, and the Canadian systems that work together to funnel Indigenous women into prison.

Martha Kahnapace's Story

Incarcerated: Truth in Shadows

Hear Martha's powerful testimony of her experience within the Canadian prison system and her journey toward healing and cultural reconnection.

What We Do

Our Mission

Support

Support incarcerated & recently released Indigenous women in their Creator-given cultural and spiritual identity.

Nurture

Nurture communities of support & transformational relationships so women can experience renewed connection with the Creator, the land, and the nations who have stewarded these lands.

Personal healing:

Being free of shame
Learning how to receive forgiveness and forgive
Re-building damaged/broken relationships
Dealing with anger

Advocate

Without societal justice to end systemic oppression, the harms will continue. The Sisters address unjust systems of incarceration as well as current societal structures which funnel Indigenous women into prison.

Educating & bringing awareness to BC residents regarding the realities inside for incarcerated women
Building networks of local groups, faith communities and residents who can advocate together for women inside

Faith & Justice

Jesus and the Justice System

"The Spirit of Creator has come to rest on me. He has chosen me to tell the good story to the ones who are poor. He has sent me to mend broken hearts, to tell prisoners they have been set free, to make the blind see again, and to lift up the ones who have been pushed down — to make known that Creator's Year of Setting Free has come at last!" Luke 4:16–19, First Nations Version

Jesus suffered under an unjust system: he was falsely arrested, tried, and executed. Then God raised him from the dead.
Jesus promises he will judge people based on whether they treated other human beings as if they were Jesus: "when I was in prison, you visited me." (Matthew 25:31–46)
"Remember those in prison as if you were with them in prison." (Hebrews 13:3)

Who We Are