Red Dress Day May 5, 2024

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S)

(Text reblogged from Amnesty International Activism Guide – Red Dress Day 2024) May 5 is Red Dress Day, a day to remember and honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples (MMIWG2S+). Red Dress Day serves as a painful reminder of the ongoing genocidal crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people and invites solidarity and action.  

Origins of Red Dress Day

The roots of Red Dress Day can be traced back to the powerful art project of Canadian Métis artist Jaime Black. In 2010, Black initiated the “REDress Project” as a visual reminder of the staggering number of missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada. Black hung red dresses in public spaces, from trees to lamp posts, creating a stark contrast against the landscape, evoking both sorrow and resilience.

What started as an art installation soon morphed into a movement. Indigenous Peoples, allies and advocates across Canada and beyond embraced the symbolic red dress as a rallying cry for awareness and action. Red Dress Day emerged as an annual event, bringing people together to honor the lives lost and demand justice for the victims and their families.

NO MORE STOLEN SISTERS

Currently, Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all femicide victims and 11 per cent of all missing women. Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples are also 6 times more likely to be murdered than their non-Indigenous counterparts. These high rates of violence have drawn widespread expressions of concern from national and international human rights authorities, which have repeatedly called for Canada to address the problem.

However, nearly four years after the release of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and two years following the release of the National Action Plan, only two of the 231 Calls for Justice have been implemented, while an implementation timeline has yet to be released.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) research guide at Camosun College

Collected and curated by Robbyn Lanning

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) page on the IST guide.

MMIWG2S is a topic often studied by our students across disciplines, and searching for this topic can be challenging. To help with this, various suggestions for searching are included (there is no direct LOC subject heading for MMIWG2S).

For those who don’t already know, there is also a Residential Schools page and a Sixties Scoop page. The Sixties Scoop page also includes resources related to the Millennium scoop and forced sterilization of Indigenous women.

Featured image by Collin Smith Takes Pics during the Stolen Sisters Memorial March on February 10, 2024