Red Dress Day: National Day of Awareness and Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People

On May 5, Durham College (DC) joins the recognition of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples (MMIWG2S). It is a day to remember and honour those who have been taken as a result of the human rights crisis of gender-based and racialized violence in Canada.

Also known as Red Dress Day, it was named after an art installation by Metis artist Jaime Black called the REDress Project. Empty red dresses were hung in various spaces to represent murdered and missing women, resulting in the now-iconic symbol. The day is generally honoured by observers wearing red clothing and hanging red dresses from trees, statues and doors and in windows.

Despite totalling less than 5% of the Canadian population, Indigenous women account for over 24% of female homicide victims and are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other women in Canada. Indigenous women are also more likely to experience physical and sexual assault and are twice as likely to experience violence from a current or former intimate partner. Advocacy groups estimate that over 4,000 Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples went missing or were murdered between 1980 and 2012.