Indigenous communities in and around the London area are marking Red Dress Day with initiatives that focus on education and the prevention of violence against young women.
Also known as National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit+ People (MMIWG2S+), the day draws widespread attention to an issue that continues to be felt by Indigenous communities daily, said Danielle Hill from Oneida Nation of the Thames.
“This is our life. We have to be worried about this every single day,” Hill said. “Every time we go out, every time we take a bus by ourselves, we’re more prone to getting taken.”
Between 2009 and 2021, the homicide rate among Indigenous women and girls was six times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts, according to Statistics Canada.
Red Dress Day started in 2010, when Métis artist Jamie Black hung hundreds of red dresses to honour MMIWG2S+, and has since become an annual day, taking place every May 5 as more groups started similar initiatives.
“In Indigenous cultures, a lot of them believe that red is the only colour that spirits can see,” said Kristen Longdo, Fanshawe College’s Indigenous Strategic Learning Guide, who is Haudenosaunee, Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River.
“It’s a way of making the invisible visible and calling spirits home, but also demanding justice.”
The college will have close to 40 donated red dresses on display around its main campus on Monday, Longdo said, each with a name tag of a different woman who has gone missing or been murdered within the last five years.
“A lot of the names that are going to be on the dresses are from 2020 onwards, so this is still happening,” Longdo said. “[Indigenous women] continue to face disproportionately high rates of violence, despite national inquiries, action plans and all these things that have been put in place to protect Indigenous people.”
It’s why organizers at the Oneida Family Healing Lodge say they’re marking the occasion with events teaching young Indigenous girls how to protect themselves.
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