Red Dress Day 2024

May 05, 2024

Today is Red Dress Day, the day we honour and remember missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two spirit people. But it isn’t only a day to remember, it is also a day for action. Indigenous woman, girls and two spirit people are still victims of violence at significantly higher rates. In Canada, they are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than other women and 16 times more likely than white women, according to the 2019 public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

Red dresses have come to symbolize all those women, girls and two spirit people who have not come home.

Today, we encourage you to take action. You can educate yourself by reading the report on the 2019 Inquiry, whose 252 calls for justice remain largely unmet. 

You can draw attention to the injustice faced by Indigenous women, girls and two spirit people by hanging a red dress in a window or outdoors at your home or business. You can wear red.

You can also stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples at gatherings, marches and vigils in your come community. Some in the lower mainland include the the Red Dress day event hosted by the City of New Westminster and Spirit of the Children Society and an honouring ceremony in North Vancouver.

You can also hold the federal government to account by emailing your local MP let them know that it matters to you that the calls to justice are completed.