Preparations underway Red Dress Day by local Indigenous-centric organizations

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A pair of Indigenous organizations have made plans for people to gather and honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

Observed on Tuesday, May 5th, Red Dress Day is a day of remembrance and activism honouring MMIWG in Canada, according to Amnesty International.

The first Red Dress display was publicized in Winnipeg in 2010 by Métis artist Jaime Black, who hung empty red dresses to represent victims.

Statistics Canada data suggests the rate of homicide among First Nations, Métis and Inuit women was six times higher than non-Indigenous women between 2009 and 2021.

At the Fort St. John Friendship Centre, a workshop will be held on Thursday, April 30th from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. to create red dress beaded earrings.

Beading is a crafting practice involving stringing beads on a thread to create jewelry, textiles and quillwork, and its use has been in First Nations communities throughout history.

Angela Milligan, the health and wellness coordinator of the Friendship Centre will be overseeing the event.

As an Indigenous mother of six daughters, MMIWG hits close to home for Milligan, whose roots are in Saskatchewan.

“It affects me a lot,” Milligan told Energeticcity.ca. “It is a very big paranoia of mine, knowing that that could happen to one of my girls.”

Milligan describes herself as a “very big beader,” and created the workshop after making Red Dress earrings for family members last year. 

There will be conversations about the significance of the Red Dress and the impact MMIWG has on the Indigenous population in Canada.

“I’m gonna be explaining what the red dress means as much as I possibly can,” said Milligan. “One lady I made earrings for last year was in tears because she has a daughter who went missing.  She found them so touching that she had something to represent and show her support for her daughter.”

“If I can teach other people a little bit of awareness and how to show their support, [it] would mean the world.”

Meanwhile, Nenan Dane zaa deh zona family services society will hold a workshop to create Red Dress day pins on Wednesday, April 22nd from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Each event will cost $45, and funds raised from both events will go toward MMIWG initiatives.

To register for the events, email Nenan Dane zaa deh zona at admin@nenan.ca or Milligan at angela@fsjfs.ca.