Indigenous communities mark Red Dress Day honouring MMIWG, educating young girls

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.

"It's a horrible feeling. We shouldn't have to do this, but it's what we have to do," said Hill, who is helping to organize the Monday event, which will include self-defence lessons and self-esteem workshops for girls. "We can't change the outside world but all we can do is make sure that we know we are loved and we are worthy."

The all-day event, happening in and around Oneida's community centre, will have activities catered to further educating the Indigenous community in ways that matter to them. 

"It's different than having [an event] in the City of London or the City of Toronto because we live this," Hill said. "We don't need awareness."

Other Red Dress Day events

The Oneida Family Healing Lodge event will start with opening speeches and snacks before participants go on an interactive memorial walk. Attendees will be given a tobacco tie and will pray as they travel down the walkway, which will have statistics, pictures of missing and murdered women and safety tips displayed, said Hill. 

In addition to the Red Dress Day display, Fanshawe College will also host a morning vigil to honour MMIWG2S+ followed by a screening of Highway of Tears, a documentary about the unsolved murders and disappearances of Indigenous women in British Columbia. 

Atlohsa Family Healing Services in London will host a drop-in community fire and lunch at the Wiigiwaaminann Lodge at 550 Wellington Rd., where people are invited to bring drums, rattles and shakers to play around the fire.

The City of London is also participating in the day by displaying red dresses at City Hall and ribbon skirts in the J. Allen Taylor Building. Some city facilities and buildings downtown will be lit red to mark the occasion.