A concert that had been planned in Yellowknife to help the family of Moses Luwalira Larel repatriate his remains has been cancelled.
Moses, 32, died after he fell from a paddleboard on the city’s Long Lake during an end-of-summer celebration on August 21. The event was held by Holy Trinity Anglican Church, where Moses was a youth counsellor.
A fundraising concert, titled Together for Moses, had been set to take place at Yellowknife Elks Lodge on Saturday, to help Moses’ family bring his body to his home country of Uganda, and celebrate his life.
On Friday morning, after this article was initially published, Alex Mulooki, who is working with Moses’ family, told Cabin Radio that they had made the “difficult decision to cremate Moses’ remains on a date to be determined by end of today.”
Mulooki said a viewing is set to take place at the McKenna Funeral Home in Yellowknife on Wednesday, September 3, with prayers planned for the following day.
On Friday afternoon, one of the organizers of the fundraising concert told Cabin Radio the Saturday event had been cancelled “due to circumstances beyond our control.”
Keneisha Buddoo, who had helped organize the fundraising concert, said he did not know Moses personally but he had been described as “always the first to help, to listen, to guide.”
“His untimely death touched my soul because I was in that water just a couple days before and I feel like it could have been me,” Buddoo said.
According to Buddoo, it was expected to cost Moses’ family around $25,000 to bring his body home to Uganda. He said the Yellowknife community wanted to help raise those funds.
“When he goes back home to Uganda, we are showing that in the North we are one,” Buddoo had said.
“We are diverse but not in how we treat our brothers and sisters. We care for each other. And that’s what this celebration is about.”
