Red Dress Day: honouring Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people
Every year on May 5, red dresses hang in trees, from windows, along fences and across public spaces. They move gently in the wind, empty yet deeply present. These dresses are not just symbols. They are reminders. They are calls to remember, to grieve and to act.
Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+), exists because Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people continue to go missing and be murdered at disproportionate rates across turtle island.
This day is not just about loss. It is about love.
The sacredness of Indigenous women
In many Indigenous cultures, women are life-givers, knowledge keepers, water carriers and leaders within their families and communities. They hold teachings, language and the responsibility of nurturing future generations. Their roles are sacred, not symbolic.
To harm Indigenous women is to harm entire communities.
To lose them is to lose stories, teachings and futures.
The violence experienced by Indigenous women is not random. It is rooted in the ongoing impacts of colonialism: land dispossession, the breakdown of family systems through residential schools and child welfare, systemic racism and the devaluation of Indigenous lives.
Why we honour Red Dress Day
Red Dress Day was inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project, which used empty red dresses to represent the absence of those who should still be here.
We honour this day to:
- Remember those who are missing and murdered
- Support families and communities who carry this grief every day
- Bring visibility to a crisis that has too often been ignored
- Call for justice, accountability and systemic change
But more than anything, we honour this day because these lives matter. They always have.
Why this day is still urgent
Red Dress Day is not just about the past. It is about what is still happening right now.
Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people continue to face violence at alarming rates. Many families are still searching for answers. Many communities are still waiting for meaningful action on the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into MMIWG.
This is not an issue that has been resolved. It is an ongoing human rights crisis.
Until Indigenous women and girls are safe on their lands, in their homes and in their communities, this day remains necessary.
What it means to truly honour this day
Honouring Red Dress Day goes beyond wearing red.
It means:
- Listening to families and survivors and amplifying their voices
- Learning the truth about MMIWG2S+ and the systems that contribute to this violence
- Supporting Indigenous-led organizations doing frontline and advocacy work
- Holding governments accountable to fully implement the Calls for Justice
- Reflecting on your own role in reconciliation and justice
For non-Indigenous people, it also means sitting with discomfort, acknowledging privilege and committing to ongoing learning and action.
A collective responsibility
At KAIROS Canada, we recognize that Indigenous rights, gender justice and ecological justice are deeply interconnected. The violence faced by Indigenous women is tied to the violence enacted on the land—through extraction, displacement and environmental harm.
Protecting Indigenous women means protecting the land.
Protecting the land means protecting life.
A day to remember and to act
Red dresses should not have to hang empty.
Tomorrow, and every day after, we are called to remember, to honour and to act.
We carry the responsibility to ensure that Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people are not only remembered for how they were taken, but honoured for who they are: sacred, powerful and essential.
Their lives matter.
Their voices matter.
Their safety matters.
And until that is fully realized, our work is not done.
By Brandi Bilodeau, Indigenous Rights Coordinator
