UNA recognizes Red Dress Day

Today is Red Dress Day, an annual event of activism and remembrance honouring the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQI+ People (MMIWG2S+).

In Canada, Indigenous women are four times more likely to be victims of violence than non-Indigenous women and the average rate of homicides involving Indigenous female victims was four times higher than those involving non-Indigenous female victims (source).

Métis visual artist Jaime Black started The REDress Project as “a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us” and to highlight the gendered and racialized nature of this critical issue in Canada. Red dresses may be draped in trees, hung in windows, pinned to jackets, worn as earrings or shirts, or as red hands painted across faces.

In 2019, the Government of Canada released the final report for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. With it, 231 Calls for Justice were released, with seven specifically directed at health and wellness.

UNA urges members to advocate for meaningful action to end violence against women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people, and to consider how we can all work together to achieve meaningful reconciliation.  

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