A red dress hangs on the large community Christmas tree downtown to remind us about the ongoing cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
At the corner of Lahakas Blvd. and Haisla Blvd. signs were also put up around the red dress with quotes that demand justice for the unsolved cases.
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The REDress Project focuses on the issue of missing or murdered Aboriginal women across Canada. With over 1,000 unsolved cases, the project is a visual reminder of the shocking number of women whose lives have been claimed.
This project also speaks for the many affected by the string of cases known as the ‘Highway of Tears’, where over 40 Indigenous women have gone missing and/or murdered throughout the highway 16 corridor.
The REDress project originally took off in 2010 after Métis artist, Jaime Black, put up installations of red dresses across Manitoba to represent Indigenous women lost to violent crimes.
Black, now hosts exhibitions all over Canada and the United States.
“I collect hundreds of red dresses and put them in empty spaces so people are confronted with both the violence the woman are experiencing but also the presence and power of Indigenous women,” Black said in a YouTube video for the National Museum of the American Indian.
The Northern Sentinel has no details as to who put up the dress and signs in town.