The red dress — first hung by Métis artist Jaime Black as an artistic response to a national crisis — has become one of the most powerful symbols of our time.
Each dress represents a life. A daughter. A sister. A mother. An aunt. An Elder. A young person whose future was stolen.
May 5th is Red Dress Day, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people. It is a day to acknowledge. And it is a day to recommit.
The tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people is rooted in a long history of systemic and colonial harms. Policies and practices that disrupted Indigenous lands, languages, families, and communities continue to have lasting impacts today. Across Canada, more than six in ten Indigenous women have experienced physical or sexual assault in their lifetime. These are not statistics. These are communities. These are families in this riding.
Recognising this history is essential — not to remain in the past, but to guide meaningful action in the present and future.
The Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into MMIWG are not suggestions. They are a roadmap. And this office is committed to ensuring they are treated that way — not filed away, not referenced at ceremonies and forgotten, but acted upon with the urgency they demand.
To the families in Churchill–Keewatinook Aski who are living with this loss — whose loved ones are among the missing, the murdered, the forgotten by systems that should have protected them — I want you to know that your grief is seen. Your loved ones are not forgotten. Not by me. Not by this office.
Red Dress Day is not one day. It is a direction. 🔴