Many communities across the country will be holding events today for National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Awareness Day, also called Red Dress Day.
As part of the campaign, red dresses are hung to symbolize the many indigenous women victims of violence who are killed and disappeared.
In Greater Sudbury, a permanent sculpture will be unveiled at the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre.
Executive Director Marie Meawasige said having the artwork on a busy downtown street will help spark conversation and awareness about murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.
“I’m sure a lot of people don’t know about this, so I’m sure we’ll get more questions from the community,” she said.
The piece was created by M’Chigeeng First Nation artist Kathryn Corbiere. It was commissioned by the N’Swakamok Native Friendship Center and Greater Sudbury Police Services, and was paid for through a federal government grant.
“It’s just an awareness that indigenous women are among many murdered and missing women in Canada,” Meawasige said.
The Timmins Native Friendship Center will hold a sacred fire ceremony to commemorate Red Dress Day.
Healing and wellness coordinator Jaylin Renaud said there will also be canvases available for participants to put on red handprints. They will then be hung throughout the friendship center as works of art.
“So that it continues to provide that conversation and dialogue with everyone who walks into the building,” he said.
This will be the first in-person Red Dress Day for the Timmins Friendship Center, due to restrictions over the past two years during the pandemic.
Renaud said he hopes the event will raise awareness, but talks continue long after May 5.
He adds that he especially wants people to remember the called to justice of the National Investigation into Murdered and Disappeared Indigenous Women and Girls.
“Hope is always on my mind and I try to continue to spread that message and provide support to the community, whatever that is locally.”
The REDdress project began over a decade ago as an art installation by Métis artist Jaime Black. It featured a series of red dresses representing missing women who were victims of violence. Red Dress Day is now celebrated annually to commemorate murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.
Laurentian University started its own version of Red Dress Day in 2016. Red dresses are hung along the streets within the post-secondary school campus.
“It opens up the conversation to talk about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and just to open up the conversation and raise awareness that this is happening, this has happened and is happening,” said Susan Manitowabi, Acting Deputy Vice President. President Academic and Indigenous Programs.
She said the campaign is personal to her because of the women she knew who have disappeared or are believed to have been killed.
“For a lot of people we have those close associations with someone, that makes it really important because we’re so connected to our families and communities and when something happens in our community we feel it.”
Manitowabi said that Laurentian has its red dress day event in February for various reasons. February is the month of the heart and is associated with the color red. Also, students can participate in the campaign because they are still on campus.
But to mark Red Dress Day on May 5, Laurentian is launching a collaboration with Cambrian College and Collège Boréal. All three schools will be seeking red dress donations. Each school will have its own drop off points.
“These red dresses will be worn at each of their individual campuses when they do their own celebration for the Red Dress campaign,” said Manitowabi.
“The more we can raise awareness [missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls] better we can address this and hopefully prevent this from happening again.”
Reference-www.cbc.ca