The statistics must be said, and said again, and again, and again, until we do something to change them. Indigenous women represent approximately 5% of Canada’s total female population, and yet they make up 24% of all homicide victims and 41% of all incarcerated women. Fifty-six percent of them are subjected to intimate partner violence, compared to approximately 30% of non-Indigenous women.
Red Dress Day, held on May 5th each year, is a national day of remembrance and activism to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people (MMIWG2S+). It aims to raise awareness about the realities of the violence to which Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples are subjected in the hope that these grim statistics can change for the better.
Metis artist Jaime Black began the REDress Project in 2010, when she hung hundreds of empty red dresses in public places to represent MMIWG2S+. As she has written:
“This work draws attention to the systemic colonial frameworks that result in violence against Indigenous women and girls.”
Why red dresses? Lori Campbell, a Metis-Cree woman from Manitoba said:
“We say the spirits that have passed see bright colours the best, red in particular. So hanging the red dresses helps lost spirits find their way home to their loved ones.”
Red Dress Day events take place across Canada on and around May 5th. This year, I had the honour of speaking at the event that has been held in Smiths Falls for the past 10 years. It’s organized by Inuit woman Flora Riley, whose sister Daphne Brown, was murdered by her husband more than 50 years ago. It was a powerful event, as more than 70 people gathered in the small park beside the townhall, where dozens of red dresses of all sizes fluttered in the gentle breeze.
While the focus of the event was on MMIWG2S+, many of us were also reflecting on the triple femicide that had occurred two days earlier in nearby Brockville, in which a mother and two of her teenage daughters were killed. A 17-year-old, who had been involved with one of the daughters, is facing three first-degree murder charges.
Looking forward, looking back
Here is some of what I said:
On this day, as we commemorate Red Dress Day once again, I find myself looking both back at the history of violence against women and, in particular, violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people, and forward as I consider our responsibilities to the future.
I think the words of Madonna Thunder Hawk, a Lakota woman from South Dakota, describe this way of looking in two directions at the same time:
‘We’re the ancestors of tomorrow, so we behave accordingly,’
We cannot move ahead if we don’t always also look behind. And, when we do that, we see a long history of promises made and promises broken, of betrayals to and of Indigenous peoples on this land. Nowhere is that truth more obvious than when we look at the reality of the many kinds of violence to which Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples have been and continue to be subjected.
As we look behind us at history and ahead of us at what is possible, we must also look at the present: the ongoing reality of the crisis of intimate partner violence in all of our communities and, today, I think especially of the femicides in Brockville. On this day, Red Dress Day, we reflect, in particular, on the reality of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples.
Whether or not federal and provincial leaders will admit it, intimate partner violence IS an epidemic. In my role, as a member of Ontario’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, I see the ultimate devastation caused by that epidemic. I see the impact it has on victims, survivors, families, friends, colleagues and entire communities.
In our work on the death review committee, we know the reality of violence against indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples; including their murders. In respect of this, we now have a dedicated working group within the DVDRC, led by Indigenous women, with a singular focus on reviewing domestic violence related deaths of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples, which we hope will lead us towards the system change that is so badly needed.
These women who have been murdered cannot be allowed to become just statistics: they are daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunties. They were loved and, in their death, they deserve to be remembered and to have justice. We must say their names so they are never forgotten.
As we take our memories of those who have died because of intimate partner violence and as we look forward, we must follow the leadership of Indigenous women. For those of us who are not Indigenous, this means learning to listen rather than thinking we have all the answers; being allies and walking beside our Indigenous sisters in demanding that the 231 Calls for Justice in the National Inquiry into MMIWG2S+ be implemented.
This work needs to begin with a meaningful commitment to systemic accountability; accountability for historic and ongoing racism, the history and impact of colonialism and genocide.
On May 5th, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the federal government would allocate $300,000 to a Manitoba pilot of the Red Dress Alert, a system to notify the public when an Indigenous women, girl or two-spirited person goes missing. That’s a good start. Now it is up to us to hold him accountable to this promise so it does not just become one more on the long trail of broken promises to Indigenous peoples.
We need to work in allyship with one another, so we can challenge our communities – however we define that word – to take action, because awareness alone is not enough. It is up to us to speak out every day against racism and misogyny.
I’ve been a lawyer working on the issue of violence against women for more than 30 years, and so I know just how much responsibility the law has for allowing this violence to continue and for failing to make the changes that could help to stop it.
It’s important for me, because I am a lawyer, to acknowledge the many ways in which the colonial laws of this land, and the actors within these legal systems, have been complicit in, silent about and benefitted from the violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples and, in particular, Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples.
These white man’s laws – for that is who wrote them and that is who benefits from them – have been given too much power to define what is right and what is wrong and which victims matter.
As the Calls for Justice tell us, we need a complete review and reform of laws about sexualized and intimate partner violence, ensuring that they are informed by the perspectives of Indigenous women.
But changing laws alone will not address the epidemic of intimate partner violence. We need to build communities that are truly safe for all so the violence doesn’t happen in the first place.
There is much to do. Ending violence against women; finding justice for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited peoples; reconciling past wrongs and harms: this is an enormous task that can feel daunting. That’s why it’s important to never forget that when we work together, we will be stronger.
I’d like to end by paraphrasing the words of American Indian Movement activist and feminist Winona LaDuke:
‘We must do our best, then we must do a bit better, and then we must not beat ourselves up.’