Red Dress Day 2024
The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, also known as Red Dress Day, is marked annually on May 5 in memory of those who are no longer with us but never to be forgotten. This important tradition began on May 5, 2010, when Métis artist Jaime Black created an art installation, which later became known as the REDress Project, at the University of Winnipeg. This installation featured a series of red dresses displayed to symbolize the disproportionate number of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit individuals who have lost their lives at the hands of violence or disappeared, never to be found. Since then, people across the country have been encouraged to display empty red dresses in public spaces as a stark reminder of all the lives we have lost and how those losses continue to touch us.
Red Dress Day is a reminder of a dark and brutal part of Canadian culture. In Canada, more than 60% of Indigenous women have experienced physical and/or sexual assault and the rate of Indigenous women murdered is almost six times higher than that of non-Indigenous women. In 2019, the National Inquiry's Final Report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was issued and 231 Calls for Justice were outlined. This report deals with such crucial topics as gendered oppression, colonialism and multigenerational trauma, and includes testimonials from family and survivors, heartbreaking statistics, and calls to action directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all citizens.
In 2021, a National Action Plan was developed in response to the Calls for Justice from the Final Report and, in 2022, a Progress Report was issued. Its purpose was to drive systemic change and end the cycle of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and Two-Spirit individuals. Some key successes were noted, such as $2.2 billion in funding provided over 5 years, collaborative work at the Canada-Council of Aboriginal Peoples policy table, and a National Online Conference to report back to Urban MMIWG2S+ Families and Survivors. However, it was also noted by the Assembly of First Nations that little progress has been made on the National Action Plan and the 2SLGBTQQIA+ report stated that there were many priorities that have not been addressed.
As individual Canadians, there are many things we can do to contribute to this vital action plan. The 231 Calls for Justice includes a section for all Canadians, detailing what each individual can do in support of the Indigenous community. These include denouncing and speaking out against violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, learning the true history of Canada and the Indigenous community (particularly in your local area), confronting and speaking out against racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, reading the Final Report and holding all governments accountable to act on the Calls for Justice.
On this day, as on every other day, we must not forget those who are no longer with us. Let the empty red dress be a graphic reminder of the harsh and barbaric side of Canadian culture, not to be ungrateful for the privileges we do have, but to prompt us to do better for those who do not and cannot share them. These crimes, this violence, is happening disproportionately in Canada, and all Canadians must do their part in remembering that this is not in our past, but still very much a part of our present.
