I think it's important that the painting of our daughter, Happy Charles, is in this art show, because it shows people that yes, she is a person, a real person. A mother, a daughter, a grandmother an aunt, it shows who she is.

Young women who go missing each one is different, but there are some common denominators: vulnerability, domestic violence, addictions. There seems to be a common denominator with these young ladies going missing. It's gotta stop… The only support that we've had was our own support system with our family, and with them our traditional life of prayers, the sweat lodge, ceremonies and stuff like that. We always end up having to come back to that… Unfortunately, the counsellor in Regina was not of any real support. She did not understand our ways because of the cultural gap. We had to depend on our own circle. It was our own people out there that helped us. We are lucky that we got that circle, you know I love our ceremonial people and our ceremonies.

                             - Carson & Regina Poitras, parents of Happy Charles

Over the years, I have been deeply moved by the plight of those who have lost their loved ones. The sad reality of missing and murdered women has touched my own community and family. Art has offered me a way to communicate empathy and solidarity with those who are left behind. Through art, I can honour those who are gone, and in some small way, share the pain with those who remain here to carry this burden. It’s my way of telling them they are not alone.”                                                                                  - Roger Jerome

Raised in Prince Albert, Roger is a Métis visual artist who lives in Air Ronge and works in a variety of media. He received his Commercial Art Certificate from Assiniboine College in Brandon, Manitoba and he and his late wife Flora owned a sign and screen-printing shop in North Battleford. Roger also worked for many years as a Corrections Worker in the northern camps. His landscape and portrait paintings and drawings are in numerous private collections and the SK Arts Permanent Collection. A milestone project was the Centennial Mural which was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 2005.

Roger is also a keen fisherman and camper and he enjoys astrophotography.