Red Dress Day
About Red Dress Day
(from Native Womens Association of Canada)
Red Dress Day The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Peoples is also known as Red Dress Day.
This name comes from a powerful art project that raises awareness about the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Peoples that represents an epidemic of gender-based violence in Canada. In 2010, Métis artist Jamie Black began The REDress Project.
It began as an art installation that hung hundreds of empty red dresses in public spaces to remind people of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and girls lost because of gender-based violence.
Jamie Black’s project gained national and international attention and inspired a movement for change. The word “redress” means to remedy or set right.
The REDress project is a call to action.
The REDress Project
AN AESTHETIC RESPONSE TO THE MORE THAN 1000 MISSING AND MURDERED ABORIGINAL WOMEN IN CANADA.
The REDress Project focuses around the issue of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. It is an installation art project based on an aesthetic response to this critical national issue. The project has been installed in public spaces throughout Canada and the United States as a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us. Through the installation I hope to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.
From: The REDress Project – Jaime Black (jaimeblackartist.com)