May 5 is Red Dress Day, and a local not-for-profit is asking residents to remember the lost.
Hope Arises Founder Joyce Crone explains that Red Dress Day is a time to honour Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.
“It is a very important day for everyone to stop and to just think about losing a mother, a sister, an aunt, a grandmother, a young child,” says Crone. “Some girls as young as 14 years old have gone missing and murdered. It’s not something just in the past, it continues to happen today.”
Wahta Mohawks First Nation will mark the occasion with a walk, speech, tobacco burning, and red dress hanging. Events begin 5:00 p.m. at the Wahta Administration Building, and the First Nation says all are welcome to attend.
Crone says even if you cannot find or make it to an event, you can take a moment to reflect.
“Hang a red dress or anything red on your property, in a tree,” says Crone. “Just something to commemorate the day.”