Red Dresses
Since more and more Indigenous women
and girls are missing or were murdered, red dresses are hanging in
the trees of citis and communities all over Canada. The red dresses
are an art instal-lation project from the metis artist Jaime Black. She started this project in 2014 to raise awareness and to remember the
missing and murdered Indige-nous women and girls (MMIWG), which cases
often remain without evidence or trial.
Black hopes within this project “to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence“. The red dress soon became a symbol of the increasing movement of Indigenous peoples who raise their voices for political action and fight for a just society. Wolfville and Acadia University also hang up red dresses in order to remember over 1000 innocent victims of racialized violence in Canada.
Black hopes within this project “to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence“. The red dress soon became a symbol of the increasing movement of Indigenous peoples who raise their voices for political action and fight for a just society. Wolfville and Acadia University also hang up red dresses in order to remember over 1000 innocent victims of racialized violence in Canada.
Sisters in Spirit is an initiative, founded
in 2005, driven and led by Indigenous women to keep up the dialogue
about this series of kidnapping and killing. Moreover, they work with familie dnd friends of MMIW in order to help them dealing with their loss and suffer. The 4th of October is a day of honouring and lamenting the lifes of those missing girls and women. Furthermore, it is a day of leading a way to social change. Their vigils take place all over Canada and also in countries abroad.
Red Ties
When the project of the red dresses has
started and received increasing attention, the need increased to have
a symbol which remembers of the missing and murdered Indigenous men
and boys as well. The documentary “Two World's Colliding“,
streamed at the Mawio'mi gathering on October 4th at
Acadia University, makes clear that the systematic, racialized
violence in Canada is not dependend on the victims gender. In order
to this, the red dresses got a partner symbol, a red tie, for missing
and murdered Indigenous men and boys.
The tree in the front lawn of
Acadia's University Hall was therefore covered with red dresses and
ties to make a sign of remembering and honouring (picture above).
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