Red Dress Display in Melfort (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

MMIWG2S

Northeast communities honour Red Dress Day

May 5, 2023 | 3:34 PM

In honour of Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, multiple northeast communities have put on displays.

At the memorial garden in Melfort, numerous red dresses were hung on Monday (May 1), and will remain for the next couple of weeks.

“The intention of a red dress campaign is to mark and remember the high number of Indigenous women and girls in Canada who are missing or have been lost to the hands of violence, and this can be directly linked to both the residential school system and the effects of the Sixties Scoop,” said Rob Lok, director of community services.

Sixties Scoop refers to the mass removal of Aboriginal children from their families into the child welfare system, in most cases without the consent of their families or bands.

Although the practice of removing Indigenous children from their families and into state care existed before the 1960s, the drastic overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the child welfare system accelerated in the 1960s. That is when Aboriginal children were seized and taken from their homes and placed, in most cases, into middle-class Euro-Canadian families.

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“The other thing to note is that May 5 is the National Day for awareness for murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit people, so this small act of reconciliation, this red dress display, is to give you the passerby an opportunity to pause and reflect for a moment,” Lok added.

A Red Dress sign is also posted at the memorial garden in Melfort, which reveals the tragic Canadian statistics.

(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

It reads that Indigenous women only make up five percent of the population in the country, however, they account for 23 percent of the women and girls who have been murdered.

In Canada, Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people are 12 times more likely to be victims of violence than any other woman, which jumps to 19 times more likely in Saskatchewan.

Nipawin has also put on a display, while holding a walk and presentation, with the help of Cumberland College.

Meanwhile, in Tisdale, one of the local schools is holding a presentation.

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