A Red Dress Day event will be held Monday, May 6 in the parking lot above the Stampede Grounds grandstands.
Organized by Cariboo Friendship Society (CFS), the gathering begins at 1 p.m. and will honour the memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in B.C. and across Canada.
There will be drumming, a sacred fire and tobacco ties as well as an opportunity to paint rocks to be placed at the Red Rock Memory Garden at 624 Oliver Street, said Jennifer Schuetze an Aboriginal Wellness Coordinator at CFS who is organizing the event with Lori Winters, PEACE program counsellor at CFS.
Because the National Day of Action and Remembrance May 5 is on a Sunday this year, Schuetz said CFS decided to host the event the next day.
A few years ago Cariboo Friendship Society and Aboriginal Housing Management Association(AHMA) commissioned artist, Satsi Naziel, to create the red dress design seen on the event poster.
Pins with the red dress design will be given out at the event.
Schuetze said in response to calls for action from Indigenous families, communities and organizations, as well as non-governmental and international organizations, the Government of Canada launched an entirely independent National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in September 2016.
Jaimie Black, a Métis visual artist, created the REDress Project in 2010 in response to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada and the U.S.
She chose the colour red after a friend told her “red is the only colour the spirits can see.”
Since then it is not uncommon for different communities to hand red dresses in trees, on buildings, on fences, inside business windows and other prominent places.
The Tillicum Society in Quesnel will host its Red Dress event on Sunday, May 5 beginning at noon at the entrance to the footbridge crossing the Fraser River.
Don’t miss out on reading the latest local, provincial and national news offered at the Williams Lake Tribune. Sign up for our free newsletter here.