Red Dress Day events are planned in Grey Bruce for Friday May 5th, to mark the a national day of awareness for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and Two-Spirit people.
The red dress as a symbol started as part of an art installation by Métis artist Jaime Black to bring awareness to violent crimes against indigenous women. By using multiple empty red dresses in the installation, it is meant to illustrate the absence of the more than 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
In Owen Sound, a Red Dress Day ceremony will be held at Kelso Beach at Nawash Park, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Gichi-Name M’wikwedong Reconciliation Garden.
At Saugeen First Nation, a gathering for First Nation members only is planned. It will not be open to the public, but will be for band members to engage in “discussion and planning on the continuing issues and factors that contribute to missing and murdered indigenous people and impacts on our community,” says an event posting.
That conversation is expected to also include discussion about a proposed Red Dress Alert. The alert is an idea proposed by Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan and would function similarly to an Amber Alert, for missing Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.
Statistics on the government of Canada’s department of justice website say Indigenous women represent 10 per cent of the total population of missing women in Canada. The page says “in 2014, the rate of homicide of Indigenous women (3.64 per 100,000) was almost six times higher than non-Indigenous women (0.65 per 100,000).”
