More Than 100 Mourners Attend Winnipeg Vigil For Mavis Ducharme

By Red Power Media, Staff, Updated Feb 13/2016

10 Year-Old Son Tried To Save His Mom From Fatal Attack

Mavis Ducharme, 39, died after a violent attack in Winnipeg last weekend. Tuesday night, more than 100 people gathered at a vigil to honor and mourn Mavis.

Mourners stood along a sidewalk on the street of Stella Ave while supporters crowded around members of Ducharme’s family as drummers from the indigenous community sang traditional songs in honor of Mavis.

• Vigil To Be Held After Winnipeg Mother Dies Following Violent Assault

A memorial was set up by a tree, with some stuffed toys, including a collage of photographs and group of candles put in the snow by those in attendance.

Family, friends and members of the indigenous community gather on Stella Ave at a vigil for Mavis Ducharme, some lit candles at a memorial in her honor. (Photo: Red Power Media)

“It’s really overwhelming I wasn’t expecting this, all the support we’ve received. Sometimes I have to go to the corner of the room to cry about it,” said Mavis’s older brother, Peter Ducharme.

Hundreds honour Mavis Ducharme at Winnipeg vigil days after deadly attack https://t.co/R31G5fQrz9 @BrohmanCBC pic.twitter.com/ykJ4qQq92t

— CBC Manitoba (@CBCManitoba) February 10, 2016

Mavis had six children and was predeceased by her adult daughter, Savanna.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Police said two people attacked Mavis and a man, whom family members identified as her longtime partner, Shannon Kirkness. He was beaten unconscious. Family members said Mavis ran to a neighbour’s house in an effort to draw the attackers away from her children who were inside her home. The attackers followed and kept beating her until police arrived. Paramedics rushed her to hospital, where she later died from the attack.

Son ‘tried to fight back,’ uncle says

Peter says he heard one of the attackers grabbed Mavis’s 10-year-old son, and threw him against the wall and choked him against the wall.

“He stood up and he tried to fight back,” Peter said. “He’s just like 10-years-old and he tried to save his mom.”

Mavis’s son later identified the suspects to police.

Kashtin Flett, 23, has been charged with 2nd-degree murder, assault and breaking and entering. Nikina Houle, 23, is charged with manslaughter and breaking and entering to commit assault.

American Indian Movement supporter Patrick Ross puts down a candle at the memorial for Mavis Ducharme.

Red Power Media caught up with a couple AIM supporters from Winnipeg who came to offer prayers, a song and to pay their respects to Mavis and the Ducharme family. They, like many others at the vigil; called for the violence to end.

Prominent MMIW activist Sandy Banman, one of Mavis’s friends, sang and drummed with others at the vigil.

Sandy believes that connecting with culture and spirituality will help stop violence in the Indigenous community.

She said people need to step up and figure out why so many indigenous men and women face violence.

“Nobody is coming to save us. We’re going to have to do this ourselves,” she said.

(Facebook Photo: Fire lit for Mavis Ducharme in Grand Rapids.)

A memorial service for Mavis to be held Feb. 13 in Grand Rapids.

Close relative Jo Cowley has also set-up a GoFundMe called: Mavis Ducharme Children’s fund. 

Mavis Ducharme and family. (Photo: GoFundMe)