Police investigating the death of Inuk land and water protector Diem Saunders

Photo: Diem speaking on Parliament Hill, February 10, 2018. Photo by Brent Patterson.

29-year-old Inuk defender Diem Saunders was found dead in her home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador on Tuesday September 7.

After the murder of her 26-year-old sister Loretta in 2014, Diem became an advocate for the rights of Indigenous women. APTN reports: “Diem was one of the first to speak at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” Diem said: “A lot of the work that I do, I think subconsciously I want my sister to be proud of me.”

APTN highlights: “A water and land protector, Diem was also part of the fight against the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador and took part in hunger strikes against the project which flooded hundreds of hectares of traditional territory.” After that two-week hunger strike in October 2016, Diem wrote: “I want to say nakummek to everyone who continue to protect our beautiful land and way of life.” Matthew Behrens writes: “Diem shared with us an inspired level of creativity and a fierce resistance to colonial violence.”

In December 2017, Diem was hospitalized in Ottawa with acute liver failure. CBC reported: “Saunders has been told she does not meet sobriety criteria set by the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the Ontario agency that manages organ transplants. [A vigil in Ottawa] heard that the policy of requiring six-months of sobriety before being put on the wait list for a liver transplant discriminates disproportionately against Indigenous people, who suffer from addiction issues due to intergenerational traumas like residential schools.”

In February 2018, Diem spoke on Parliament Hill following an all-white jury finding Gerald Stanley not guilty of murdering 22-year-old Colten Boushie of the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan in August 2016. Later that month following the acquittal of Raymond Cormier in the murder of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg, Diem said: “The justice system doesn’t work for us, it works against us. It steadily works against Indigenous Peoples. It doesn’t protect Indigenous women or girls and it’s completely broken.”

Diem was also an advocate for transgender rights. This July she wrote: “I came out as trans to my parents, brother, closest queer friends and neighbours last summer. I am non-binary and always have been. I didn’t have the language to say I am third gender.”

The circumstances of Diem’s death are not known at this time. On July 17, Diem posted on Facebook about the recent deaths of five women, three of them Indigenous, in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Diem commented: “I think HVGB has a serial killer or just violently apathetic community who enable tragedy to strike.”

The Canadian Press now notes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is investigating Diem’s death and that “the force’s major crimes unit and the office of the chief medical examiner were helping with the investigation.”

Diem’s family is now fundraising to travel to Goose Bay to mourn her. More on how you can support that here.

Photo by Ossie Michelin.