'Please come home': video aims to keep indigenous women, girls off MMIW list

The lyrics are powerful. So are the images.

Young girls, being victimized in their own homes. Young women, disappearing on the street. 

A video, created to warn First Nations women and girls of the dangers they face on the street, is being put together with the backing of more than 30 communities who have lost people now counted among Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

It comes as Canada prepares to hold an inquiry into the issue. 

• Missing, murdered indigenous women pre-inquiry meetings begin in Thunder Bay, Ont.

"We want them to learn to be mindful of any situation that they're in that something could happen to them," said Don Courchene, Southern Chiefs Organization chief of staff, who came up with the idea for the video. 

"We feel that the best way to get to young people is through music and videos," Courchene said.

SCO represents 32 southern First Nations that have experienced the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls firsthand. 

"In our community (Sagkeeng First Nation) there's nine people that have gone missing. That's way too much in regards to a population of our size for a community," said Courchene. "So we look at our children they could be victims at any day so that's one of the reasons why we want to do it."

They could be victims

In the video, a man sings "time doesn't heal, it just means we have more time to feel" as the video shows a young girl sitting at a computer, while her mother nearby has no idea her daughter is being targeted by an online predator.

In another scene, two teenage girls get off a city bus and are standing on the sidewalk. A vehicle with tinted windows slows down to check them out. Later on, one of the girls waves goodbye and leaves. Her friend is seen standing alone on the side of the road. A short while later the vehicle returns and the girl disappears, as the song "Please Come Home" plays in the background. 

The idea behind the video is to show young people that regardless of their situation, whether or not they live in a loving home surrounded by good people, that they can still fall victim.

The video was shot and edited by "Just TV" and will be part of SCO's Protecting Our Women Project. The initiative was started in the spring of 2015 and is part of a three year project funded under Status of Women Canada.

Families' hurt and frustration highlighted

It is aimed specifically at First Nations women and girls who live in Winnipeg or are moving to Winnipeg.

"Many times when First Nations or aboriginal women are moving to the city .... they're not really sure about what resources are available for them, what areas of the city to avoid, what sort of safety mechanisms they can have for themselves," said Shauna Fontaine, SCO Violence Prevention and Safety Planning Coordinator. "The safety plan and tool kit we're creating is going to assist these women and girls [to avoid] potentially dangerous situations."

The video is still in the editing stage but SCO plans to release it in the near future

"We figured the first step is in regards to education, is awareness so we designed an awareness tool for people to try and think about it everyday as you go out, because there's too many examples of people being lost," said Courchene.