LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Martina Norwegian says she came far, far too close to becoming another murdered aboriginal woman one day more than 20 years ago after she got off a plane in Calgary.

Rosa Wright outlines a butterfly pattern on fabric during a sewing event Jan. 21 in conjunction with Walking With Our Sisters, an exhibit honouring missing and murdered aboriginal women. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo

Norwegian awoke in the secure area of the airport in the passenger seat of an ambulance after her flight not knowing how she got there.

The last thing she recalled was standing at a bank of phones in the terminal making a call.

After she awoke and spoke to police, her purse was found still beside those phones.

She still can't explain what happened - she just doesn't have any memory of it - and no one was ever caught, she said.

She told her story Jan. 21 at an event in Fort Simpson held by Liidlii Kue First Nation and Open Sky Creative Society.

It was a sewing night at the rec centre in conjunction with the Walking With Our Sisters exhibit that had been on display in Yellowknife.

The exhibit, which has been held in other communities around the country, commemorates missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada and the United States.

The display features bead work moccasin tops, representing those missing or murdered women.

Norwegian said before coming to the event she was reflecting on the statistics when she remembered how she almost became one.

"Things like this just bring back those memories," Norwegian said.

"I haven't thought about it for years ... That could have been..." she said, trailing off.

She wanted to tell her story to help raise awareness.

"Instead of just reading about the facts, we have to put out the story. It makes it easier for others to come forward," she said.

Rosa Wright also said in an interview that she was almost murdered and that she felt compelled to come out and show support for women who aren't able to attend.

"It really touches my heart to be here," Wright said about the sewing event.

"I'm blessed that the creator is in my life and that I'm here to be able to do this with my daughter," she said.

She said it takes time to heal, but it's important to come out to events like the one held in the village to support those hurting after losing someone.

Attendees were sewing bits that will be assembled to make a quilt.

Anyes Fabre-Dimsdale, Open Sky's executive director, said the sewing would continue until Jan. 30, when what she described it as a "crazy quilt" - with patches that don't need to all be the same size to be sewn together - would be assembled.

In addition to the sewers on Jan. 21, children at the recent Open Sky coffee house sewed parts for the quilt.

Once complete, the quilt will be put on display somewhere in the community.

She said Open Sky and LKFN wanted to hold a local event in conjunction with the exhibit, which was originally supposed to come to the village.

However, there wasn't enough space or the display, so it was held in Yellowknife.

Fabre-Dimsdale said it looked like the display in the city went wonderfully.