KITCHENER — Kneeling down on the cold concrete in front of city hall, Sorouja Moll and others began to make their chalk marks.

It might have looked at first glance like a colourful outdoor art installation, but it was hardly a celebration. Moll was leading something called the Writing Names Project, honouring the more than 1,000 missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.

"By writing their names down, they become more than just statistics. They become real people," said Moll, a professor of drama and speech communication at the University of Waterloo.

The demonstration, which began with an aboriginal drum and smudging ceremony, was part of an International Women's Week event organized by grassroots group NextGenWR to promote gender equality.

While local women's organizations gathered inside city hall, people picked up chalk and slowly covered Carl Zehr's Square in names. Moll hopes the act, in collaboration with the Waterloo Aboriginal Education Centre, forces people to pause and consider the epidemic of violence against women in the aboriginal community.

"When you're writing these names, people will stop, take notice and ask questions," she said. "It offers a way to engage in this issue in a way you wouldn't otherwise. It's also raising awareness for people to understand the magnitude of this crisis."

She started the Writing Names Project a few years ago when she was studying statistics around missing and murdered indigenous women.

"It started to bother me that I didn't know anything about these women and girls. I didn't even know their names," she said. "To write their name, you have to think about it, you start to know their story. It's very emotional."

Moll began writing the women's names around Montreal, and since then has repeated the project on the Waterloo campus.

"When I started in Montreal, I was doing it by myself. But now it's evolved to become completely community collaborative," she said. "It's getting people to acknowledge, honour and remember. These girls and women were loved, and they loved."

The event's speakers included Michelle Sutherland, executive director of the White Owl Native Ancestry Association, Fauzia Mazhar of the Coalition of Muslim Women KW and Laura Mae Lindo, director of Laurier's diversity and equity office.

Jane Mitchell, the regional councillor who helped organize the day, said Moll's demonstration was a fitting, and powerful, kickoff the gathering.

"It's very moving to see those names. It makes you stop and think that those are real people, and say to our governments, 'what can we do to stop this?'"