On a day dedicated to honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, family and friends of Dory Cook had very fresh grief in their hearts.

Cook, a 77-year-old Métis woman, was killed on Sunday. But the news about her death wasn’t publicly announced until Tuesday, when many of the people who knew and loved her were marking Red Dress Day.

“It was even more elevated for many of us, because a respected Indigenous matriarch — she truly was a matriarch — was murdered, taken. Her life was taken in a very violent way,” said Kathie Pruden, a Métis activist who worked alongside Cook over the years.

Police have charged Rachel Jessica Smallboy, 42, with second-degree murder, after Cook was found dead in her home in the 200 block of Avenue R South. Smallboy made her first appearance in Saskatoon provincial court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody until Thursday.

Cook was a social worker and mental health advocate, as well as a talented musician. She was a strong advocate for people who faced barriers or didn’t have a voice, Pruden said in an interview.

“Dory was a really recognized mental health therapist,” Pruden said. “She incorporated, you know, your typical Western philosophies around counselling and therapy, along with Indigenous cultural aspects.”

Pruden said Cook incorporated music in her advocacy as well, writing songs about “hope and forgiveness,” and talking about how music and her culture helped her heal from things that hurt her in the past.

Amy Cook Isbister is one of Cook’s many nieces and nephews (Cook had 10 siblings). She said her aunt was the type of person who would help anybody who needed it, but particularly people who were on the streets and struggling.

“She was non-judgmental,” Cook Isbister said in an interview. “She would help you any way she could … it didn’t matter if people were drug-addicted or homeless, or anything.”

In recent years, Cook was struggling with her own mental health after the death of her son, her niece said.

She said news of her aunt’s death was shocking and devastating. 

“I just don’t understand how anybody could harm her. She was frail, she was elderly.”

She said the family hasn’t been told much about what happened, and she didn’t want to speculate while police are investigating. She said the person who is charged, Rachel Smallboy, was the on-again, off-again partner of one of Cook’s nephews, and that Cook was helping the nephew out while he stayed at her home.

Cook Isbister said police had been called to the home on prior occasions, due to Smallboy. The Saskatoon Police Service said it couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation. 

“We’re really unsure of the extent of it and what happened,” Cook Isbister said.

‘A lot of heart’

In the 1980s and 1990s, Cook worked at the Family Support Centre in Saskatoon, facilitating parenting classes and parenting support. Mavis McPhee worked alongside her at that time.

She said learning about Cook’s death was very upsetting, because of how much good she did in the community. Cook was a “very gentle soul,” she said in an interview.

“She was always encouraging you to look at someone’s back story,” she said. “What was their history, why might they be in the situation that they’re in now?”

Betty Nippi-Albright, MLA for Saskatoon Centre, said she was devastated by news of Cook’s death. Until Tuesday, Nippi-Albright was the Opposition NDP’s critic for mental health, but she has left the NDP caucus and is now sitting as an independent.

In a video she posted to Facebook, Nippi-Albright said Cook was a “dear friend” of hers.

“She was beautiful. She had a lot of heart and compassion for people and helping people,” Nippi-Albright said in the video on Tuesday. “To die in such a horrific, tragic way is heartbreaking, especially on this day of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit.”

“Rest in peace.”