Red Dress Day - Beyond Awareness: Honouring Indigenous Lives, Demanding Justice
Red Dress Day, officially recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+), is more than a symbolic observance. It is a day rooted in grief, truth, resistance, and accountability. Created through the work of Métis artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project, the red dress has become both memorial and protest, calling attention to the thousands of Indigenous lives lost while demanding that these losses no longer be normalized or ignored. The red dress represents an Indigenous woman, girl, or Two-Spirit person who is missing, murdered, or stolen through ongoing colonial and gender-based violence. Together, they form a visual reminder of lives that mattered, communities forever changed, and a country still failing to protect Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous families, survivors, Elders, and advocates have spent decades speaking truth about the violence faced by Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people. They have marched, organized, searched for loved ones, and carried stories that systems often refused to hear. Despite this, the violence continues. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that this crisis is rooted in colonialism and perpetuated through systemic racism, sexism, poverty, forced displacement, inadequate housing, child welfare involvement, policing failures, and institutional neglect. These are not isolated incidents or individual tragedies. They are structural conditions that place Indigenous peoples at heightened risk while limiting access to safety, justice, and support. For many Indigenous communities, this violence is also tied to the ongoing impacts of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and intergenerational trauma. The disruption of kinship systems, cultural practices, language, and connection to land has created vulnerabilities that continue across generations. At the same time, Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people continue to lead movements grounded in resurgence, healing, advocacy, and community care.
Red Dress Day is also a call to examine the systems we participate in and benefit from. As social workers, educators, healthcare providers, policymakers, and community members, we must ask how institutions continue to fail Indigenous peoples and what accountability truly requires. Reconciliation cannot exist without confronting the ongoing realities of colonial violence.
Meaningful solidarity requires more than statements of support. It requires action rooted in social justice, anti-oppressive practice, and reconciliation. It requires listening to Indigenous voices, supporting Indigenous-led services and healing initiatives, advocating for the full implementation of the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+, and working toward systems that value, protect, and uphold the dignity and safety of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.
Honouring Red Dress Day means recognizing that every missing or murdered Indigenous person is deeply loved. It means recognizing that Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people are not statistics. They are daughters, sisters, mothers, aunties, partners, friends, knowledge keepers, and community leaders whose absence is profoundly felt, and deserving of justice, remembrance, and collective action.
What You Can Do
Wear red or participate in local Red Dress Day events and vigils.
Read and engage with the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+.
Support Indigenous-led organizations and grassroots initiatives.
Challenge stereotypes, racism, and victim-blaming in everyday conversations and institutions.
Advocate for safe housing, accessible transportation, mental health supports, and culturally grounded services for Indigenous communities.
Continue learning about the connections between colonialism, gender-based violence, and systemic inequities.
Red Dress Day is not only about remembering those who have been lost. It is about honouring Indigenous strength, resilience, and resistance while demanding a future where Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people can live safely, freely, and with dignity. The empty red dresses remind us not only of absence, but of responsibility. They ask us what it means to truly listen, to act with integrity, and to refuse a society where Indigenous lives continue to be treated as disposable.
By Evetta Solomon
Resources
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – Final Report and Calls for Justice
The REDress Project – Jaime Black
Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC)
Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) - Safe Passage Project
Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA)
Amnesty International Canada – No More Stolen Sisters