REDress Day —May 5, 2024

The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ Peoples, also known as REDress Day, is on May 5, 2024.

In 2010, Métis artist Jaime Black began the REDress Project. It began as an art installation that hung hundreds of empty red dresses in public spaces, such as the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, to remind people of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and girls lost because of gender-based violence. The project gained momentum not only across Canada but also globally, inspiring people to create change and end violence against Indigenous women and girls.

The REDress Project has been the call to action at the centre of work of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) since 1974. The word “redress” means to remedy or set right. We must commemorate and remember the lost grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunties, and the 2SLGBTQI+ members of our communities. We must work together to redress this violence.

REDress Project is to honour those we’ve lost and to create a safer society for Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ peoples.