Red Dress day in effect for missing Indigenous women – Merritt Herald

May 5, 2020

May 5 is Red Dress Day in Canada, and Canadians are encouraged to wear red in order to draw attention to the more than 1000 missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.

The REDress Project was the idea of Metis artist Jaime Black, who is based in Winnipeg, MB. Black was inspired to commemorate missing and murdered aboriginal women while attending a conference in Germany, where Jo-Ann Episkenew – an indigenous professor, writer and researcher – spoke about the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.

According to Black’s website, “The REDress Project, focuses around the issue of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. It is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to this critical national issue. The project seeks to collect 600 red dresses by community donation that will later be installed in public spaces throughout Winnipeg and across Canada as a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us. Through the installation I hope to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.”

Read More: https://www.merrittherald.com/red-dress-day-in-effect-for-missing-indigenous-women/