Brock University: Reflecting on Red Dress Day Through Events and Workshops

The Brock and wider Niagara communities are invited to attend a day of events encouraging reflection on the National Day for Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also known as Red Dress Day, taking place Sunday, May 5.

Hosted by the City of St. Catharines, St. Catharines Downtown Association, Niagara Regional Native Centre, and De Dwa Da Dehs Nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre, the day’s activities are organized in partnership with Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) and Office of the Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement.

The day will begin with a traditional gathering featuring drumming and medicine ties at 11 a.m. at Willowbank Estate in Queenston followed by a community walk in downtown St. Catharines starting at 2 p.m. at St. Catharines City Hall and ending at MIWSFPA.

All are welcome to attend an Indigenous Makers Market at the MIWSFPA’s Visual Arts Gallery and Exhibition Space from noon to 4:30 p.m. Pre-registered ribbon skirt and medicine pouch workshops (fully subscribed) will also be taking place at the downtown arts school throughout the day.

Similar to Brock’s red dress display, held annually in February, Red Dress Day builds on an initiative that began as an art installation by Métis artist Jaime Black at the University of Winnipeg in 2011 to signify the loss of thousands of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGTBQQIA+) people to colonial violence.