What is Red Dress Day?

May 5 marks Red Dress Day across the country. Officially known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S), this day invites people to publicly and privately honour those lives this world has lost.  

Jamie Black, a Métis artist from Winnipeg, began the movement in 2011 with an art installation that was first called the REDress Project. She took donated red dresses and hung them to express “both the violence that women are experiencing, but also the presence and power of Indigenous women.” The art has inspired people to use red dresses as a symbol of the women, girls and Two Spirit people who have gone missing or have been murdered, and as a way to show their dedication to creating a safer society. 

Indigenous women and girls and Two Spirit people are the people most often targeted for violence. Red Dress Day is about building awareness of the ongoing harm and remembering those we have lost and their families.  

You can mark the day by: 

• Wearing red and posting it to social media with the hashtags: #MMIWG, #MMIWG2S, #RedDressDay, #WhyWeWearRed and #NoMoreStolenSisters 

• Hanging a red dress in your window or yard 

• Reading the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ final report. 

Do practice awareness as this day can be triggering for those affected by MMWIG2S+ loss. The MMWIG2S+ support call line is 1-844-413-6649, it is free of charge and always open.  

The REDress Project at the National Museum of the American Indian