Lost loved ones remembered as Indigenous families gather for Red Dress Day
Red Dress Day was inspired in 2010 by Jamie Black, a Métis artist
On Red Dress Day, Christina Steffen can't help but think of her sister-in-law, Theresa Wilson-Jamieson-Fleming.
The 31-year-old vanished in 2010. Her body was discovered almost a year later in the Thames River near Chatham, Ont.
"She was stolen from us," said Steffen at an event at the N'Amerind Friendship Centre in London, Ont. Friday, where a sacred fire burned and people gathered to remember loved ones.
Fleming was last seen in southwest London near Wellington and Exeter roads. News reports at the time said she had a tattoo on her lower back that read 'Smarter than the average woman.'
Her family remembers her as not only smart, but strong and says, if it can happen to Fleming, it can happen to anyone — a fact apparent in the sheer number of murdered and missing women and girls whose names were spoken Friday during Red Dress events and marches held across the country.
The day of awareness and action was started the same year Flemming went missing.
"Her closest siblings have suffered major mental health issues. They've fallen to addiction and despair. They haven't really come to terms with what happened to her," Steffen explains.
A report by Statistics Canada showed that the murder rate in 2020 was more than five times higher for Indigenous women compared with non-Indigenous women.
"I'm here representing many girls within our family and our community, our grandmothers, our aunties, our daughters, and so on and so forth," said Kristi White who says she works with Indigenous youth and worries every day about their safety.
"Canada really needs to pay attention and start making a stance. This is a national crisis," she said.
White's advice to all Canadians is to learn what was laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation document and to ask questions.
"You could hang up a red dress. You could sign a petition, have conversations with people, just to say, hey, do you know about the calls to justice? I think we can no longer leave it to the government," said White.
In 2016, the Canadian government launched the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The inquiry released its final report on June 3, 2019 with a total of 231 calls to justice that touched on multiple institutions.
In June 2020, the RCMP issued a statement reaffirming its "commitment to improving relationships with Indigenous communities, supporting survivors and families, and ensuring that investigations are robust, professional and result in justice for the victims and their families."