The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was officially launched on August 3rd, 2016. The commissioners were directed to examine and report on institutional policies and practices put in place as a response to violence, including those that have proven effective in reducing violence and increasing the safety of Indigenous women and girls.

The GNWT fully supported the independent, federally funded National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and recognizes and honours the families that took part. The strength and courage in bearing witness on behalf of loved ones and speaking their truth was an essential step that will allow this territory and this country to face and address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

On October 4th, 2016, the GNWT registered an order under the Public Inquiries Act to provide the National Inquiry with the authority necessary to fully examine matters within the jurisdiction of the NWT.

The National Inquiry held 9 institutional hearings, 15 community hearings and additional statement gatherings in communities across Canada and heard from more than 2300 people who shared their experience and made recommendations for change, stories of trauma, statement gatherings, and through artistic expressions. A community visit to Yellowknife occurred on August 28th, 2017 and a community hearing was held January 23rd to 25th, 2018.
In total, more than 2,300 people shared their stories and experiences and made recommendations for change. The only NWT Indigenous organization with standing in the National Inquiry was the Native Women’s Association of the NWT. The GNWT’s final submission to the National Inquiry supported the four primary recommendations put forward by the Native Women’s Association of the NWT, which are directed at all levels of Canadian leadership including the federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments:

1. We must acknowledge that violence against Indigenous women and girls including members of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities is a crisis that demands an urgent and active response.
2. We must re-establish, build, and foster trust between all levels of government, service providers, communities and every one of their citizens.
3. We must ensure that the purpose and objective of all government services is to be community and person-centered.
4. We must establish a meaningful entity with accountability to monitor and evaluate the acknowledgement by governments, efforts towards rebuilding trust and establishment of and outcomes from community and person-centered government services.

In the wording of the recommendations put forward by the Native Women’s Association of the NWT, they use the word ‘We’, thereby sending a clear message that everyone has a role in this and that the ‘we’ also includes them as an active participant.

The 2019 Final Report of the National Inquiry Reclaiming Power and Place concludes that the violence described during the inquiry “amounts to a race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples” which targets women and girls.

The Final Report includes 231 Calls for Justice which includes a Call for Justice to develop a National Action Plan in response to the Calls for Justice. Common to all the Calls for Justice are the following principles and findings identified in the Final Report:

• An absolute paradigm shift is needed to address colonialism and racial and gendered discrimination from all levels of government and public institutions.
• Exposure to violence is not a symptom of service gaps, it is a sign of systemic violation of the human rights of Indigenous women to gender equality requiring broad structural changes to the policies and processes of government.
• The implementation of the Calls for Justice must involve the participation of people with lived experience, and the perspectives of the families of the missing and murdered and survivors of violence.
• Government services and solutions must be influenced by Indigenous governments, and Indigenous women and involve a true partnership.
• The interpretation and implementation of the Calls for Justice must include Indigenous  languages and culture.
• Incorporating knowledge of trauma into all policies, procedures and practices of service delivery is crucial.
• Efforts by Indigenous women and girls to be self-determining (particularly in relation to the delivery of services) face significant barriers because of short-term or project-based funding models used by governments. Contribution funding for programs and services should be needs-based and sustainable.