The Red Dress Movement

Over the last few days, red dresses are being hung around the halls of the Medicine Hat College. The red dresses mark the REDress Project which brings awareness to the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. On May 5th across the country, people remember the nearly 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. After doing some research, I found that Indigenous women and girls are going missing and murdered every day but you never hear about it. Compared to a white woman, it becomes the top story on the news.

A few months ago, the story of Gabby Piteto took over the internet. When doing research, in Google there are 33,900,000 results when you google "Gabby Petito" Everyone knew the story about Gabby going missing, there was so much angry and everyone wanted justice for Gabby. But I asked myself, who wanted justice for these Indigenous women and girls? No one stood up for them, their stories are not being shared until the REDress Project. This project is these women's voice, it is bringing awareness to their stories.

Before doing the research, I had never realized how big this issue truly was. Finding that there is a highway about the Indigenous women that have gone missing or been murdered, naming it the Highway of Tears. This made me concerned that I had never heard about this before. If enough Indigenous women are going missing to name a highway after it, why don't more people know? And for lots of the families, they will never know nor have justice for their mothers, sisters, daughters. The message of these red dresses is so powerful, although little gives these missing women and girls a voice.

Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/red-dresses-hang-across-b-c-in-a-call-for-justice-for-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-1.6015462
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/indigenous-groups-in-canada-mark-red-dress-day-raising-awareness-of-mmiwg-1.5416170

Hi Timora,

I really enjoyed this post about your new-found insight into the REDress Movement involving missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. I completely agree that it is extremely concerning when it comes to the lack of attention these Indigenous women and girls receive, especially compared to that of a white woman such as Gabby Petito. Gabby was given a huge amount of media coverage and concern when she turned up missing after a backpacking trip with her fiancé. The only issue, though, is that Indigenous females are dealing with this on a regular basis and have been for years and years, with media coverage that does not even come close to compare to that of missing or murdered white women.

I also liked your point on how they named an entire highway, the Highway of Tears, due to the frequency of these Indigenous women and girls turning up missing or deceased and yet there still seems to be minimal awareness when it comes to these occurrences. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that these women and girls are being turned into a stat of sorts, rather than being viewed as individual people. Either way, these mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters are not receiving the justice they deserve or the media coverage to go with it. Imagine if these Indigenous women and girls were individually being given the same coverage as a white woman such as Gabby Petito. It would make a world of a difference to the victims’ families as well as the Indigenous community as a whole, and yet it is still not happening in a world that is supposed to have come so far and learned so much about the power of inclusion. It is definitely a cause for concern.

Thanks for sharing, Timora!!!